Wrightstown secures share of title, milestone mark for coach
The Wrightstown football team is known for creating some long nights for its competition.
The Tigers’ relentless pursuit was on full display Friday in rigupending Luxemburg-Casco for a 24-6 victory to clinch a share of the North Eastern Conference title.
Wrightstown (7-1, 6-1) used a familiar formula in rushing for 262 yards and forcing three turnovers to give head coach Steve Klister his 150th career win.
L-C (5-3, 5-2) knew it was going to be in for a long night even before the opening kickoff as it watched the Tigers’ introduce 22 players on their Senior Night.
Wrightstown seemingly kept bringing in fresh bodies throughout the game to average 5.3 yards per carry on offense and record four sacks with its steady pressure on defense.
“I think they have a lot of depth,” L-C coach Dillon Maney said. “They have a big senior class. You hear them announced early on, and they’re a bunch of talented kids that have really bought into Coach Klister’s philosophy out here. That’s just to be a hard-nosed football team, run the football, get after people and win with low pad level. I tip my hat to them. That’s a good D4 football team. It wouldn’t surprise me if you see them down at Camp Randall.”
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The Tigers can clinch the outright NEC title if it can beat Little Chute next week in the regular-season finale.
Wrightstown became the third team in as many years since the conference formed to claim at least a share of the NEC championship after knocking off the Spartans, who won the title last year.
The Tigers have a long tradition of winning conference championships, dating back to their dominance in the old Olympian Conference.
However, this year’s title is a little bit sweeter since Wrightstown now finds itself as the second-smallest school in its conference.
“It’s huge,” Klister said. “Coming into this conference kind of as a small team and looking at Luxemburg, Freedom and Little Chute and all of those programs, that we can compete with them I guess is a nice note for our program.
“The defense rotating them in tonight kept them fresh. Our whole line from tight end to tight end just did a super job tonight of blocking.”
Junior Andrew Pelishek rushed for 117 yards on 27 carries behind the blocking of junior Evan Guns, senior Jonathan O’Connell, senior Sam Stenzel, junior Sam Karner, senior Danny Burns, senior Luke Haese, senior Logan Cieslewicz and senior Mason Rogers.
Rogers saw an expanded role at tight end on offense after Cieslewicz went down with an injury.
Rogers also made a sack on defense and the first of Wrightstown’s three interception by scooping up a deflected screen pass in the first quarter.
The turnover resulted in a nine-play, 54-yard drive that ultimately stalled at the L-C 5 with a stop on downs.
The Spartans followed with a nine-play, 95-yard scoring drive, which culminated with senior Austin Tlachac taking a screen pass from junior Garrit Aissen in for a 22-yard touchdown.
The Tigers responded on the first play of the ensuing possession when senior Jacob Klister went down the right sideline for a 48-yard touchdown scamper to put them up 7-6 with 7 minutes, 7 seconds remaining in the second quarter.
“To get a good kickoff return and then a quick score was huge,” Coach Klister said.
Wrightstown opened the second half with senior Braydon Smith scoring on a 20-yard screen pass from senior James Hansen to cap a nine-play, 68-yard drive to extend the lead.
The Tigers later put together a 15-play, 82-yard drive to add to it with a 32-yard field goal by senior Jacob Peters with 9:50 remaining in the game.
L-C moved to the Wrightstown 20 on the following possession, but senior Mason Kussow ended the drive with an interception. The play was one of only nine that the Spartans ran in Tigers’ territory in the second half.
Senior Anthony Feldkamp came up with the third interception for Wrightstown on a fourth-down play. Four runs later, the Tigers went up 24-6 with a 26-yard TD by Smith, who finished with 119 yards of offense.
Kussow finished with a team-high 11 tackles for Wrightstown, while Feldkamp added 10 tackles, including two for losses. Burns, senior Jonathan Meulemans and senior Jacob Beining also recorded sacks for the Tigers, who limited L-C to 111 rushing yards on 37 carries.
Wrightstown defeated Luxemburg-Casco 24-6 in a North Eastern Conference football game on Oct. 6, 2017.
Posted by Preps Agenda on Saturday, October 7, 2017
“They have good speed,” Maney said. “They have good speed all over the place. Maybe we underestimated them on that a little bit, but it’s one of those things that we had opportunities, too. We just didn’t make the plays when our name was called. We’ll go back to the drawing board and try to figure it out and try to make it better. We can’t turn over the ball three times. We can’t win when we do that, especially against a good football team. I think we can use it as a learning experience.”
Tlachac was responsible for 79 yards of offense for L-C. Aissen completed 8-of-21 passes for 96 yards with fellow junior Ian Doell making five receptions for 73 yards.
Senior Austin LeRoy posted a game-high 18 tackles, while senior Jacob Zellner added 14 tackles to lead the Spartans.
L-C can still win a share of the NEC title with a win against Oconto Falls and if Little Chute can beat Wrightstown. In fact, a Wrightstown loss next week could open the door for the possibility of a five-way tie atop the NEC.
But unlike their rotation of defenders and stable of backs, the Tigers aren’t interested in sharing the success of a conference championship with someone else.
“It’s an attitude when you run the ball,” Smith said. “You have to be aggressive, and I think we have that culture in Wrightstown.”
Luxemburg-Casco 0 6 0 0 – 6
Wrightstown 0 7 7 10 – 24
Second quarter
L-C – Austin Tlachac 22 pass from Garrit Aissen (Kick failed) 7:25
WRI – Jacob Klister 48 run (Jacob Peters kick) 7:07
Third quarter
WRI – Braydon Smith 20 pass from James Hansen (Peters kick) 9:03
Fourth quarter
WRI – Peters 32 field goal 9:50
WRI – Smith 26 run (Peters kick) 3:40
Individual statistics
Rushing – L-C: Dakota Robinson 13-55, Austin Tlachac 11-42, Nathan Coisman 7-28, Garrit Aissen 5- -14, Bryce Scholze 1-0; WRI: Andrew Pelishek 27-117, Jacob Klister 6-70, Braydon Smith 9-69, James Hansen 4- -5, Jeremy Van Zeeland 3-11.
Passing – L-C: Garrit Aissen 8-21-3-96; Austin Tlachac 1-1-0-37; WRI: James Hansen 7-16-0-120.
Receiving – L-C: Ian Doell 5-73, Austin Tlachac 1-22, Anthony Otradovec 1-22, Austin Tlachac 1-22, Travis Riemer 1-9, Nathan Coisman 1-7; WRI: Jeremy Van Zeeland 3-51, Braydon Smith 3-50, Jacob Klister 1-19.