BY RICH PALZEWIC
CORRESPONDENT
SUAMICO – Bay Port outside linebacker Matt Barnard had the game of his life when his team needed it most.
The senior had a sack, fumble recovery and returned an interception for a touchdown in the Pirates 48-27 Fox River Classic Conference win over Pulaski on September 15 at Bay Port High School.
Barnard’s big night helped No. 4 ranked Bay Port (5-0) become WIAA playoff eligible and remain undefeated heading into next Friday’s showdown at Green Bay Notre Dame, who is also perfect after five weeks.
“I’ve never had a game like this,” said Barnard. “Turnovers really changed the momentum of the game and helped us win a game in the end.”
With the Pirates up 27-14 beginning the third quarter, a bad snap on the first play of the half for Pulaski led to Barnard’s fumble recovery at the 5-yard line. One play later, Jacob Calawerts scored to bump the lead to 34-14. Then with under a minute remaining in the game, Barnard picked off a Dustin Graf pass and scampered 56 yards for a TD down the right sidelines to end the scoring.
“I just saw that ball lofted up there and I saw my chance,” Barnard said of his interception. “I was just going for the corner of the end zone and I didn’t want to go down; I wanted to score that touchdown.”
In a game that was much closer than the score indicated, mistakes by Pulaski (2-3) were problematic all night. Graf threw another interception to Carson Schroeder in the first half and the Red Raiders also had a 91-yard pass play called back due to a penalty on their first offensive play of the game.
“We definitely have some work to do defensively,” said Bay Port head coach Gary Westerman. “It’s concerning how many big plays we are giving up on defense, but Pulaski’s offense is very hard to defend – it’s tough. It’s just a different animal, but we knew it was going to be a hard game.”
The Raiders had almost as many total yards (340-385) and first downs (14-16) as the Pirates, but three turnovers spelled doom.
Bay Port jumped ahead on their opening drive of the game when quarterback Isaac Krause scored from 10 yards out. He added another score a few minutes later from 43 yards to make it 14-0. It was Krause’s fifth rushing TD in the last two weeks.
After Pulaski tied it at 14 early in the second quarter, a big sequence of plays helped turn the tide of the game back to the Pirates.
Isaiah Gash scored on a 40-yard run with five minutes left in the half, before a Raiders’ penalty on an Owen Miller missed 28-yard field goal inside of a minute to play eventually gave Bay Port another score. Calawerts plunged in from the 2 to make it 27-14 heading into intermission.
“That was definitely a big series of plays,” Westerman said. “Our defense had just given up the tying score and then we come down and scored right away and catch the break on the penalty on the missed field goal.”
In addition to Calawerts’ and Barnard’s scores after half, Gash had another rushing TD sandwiched in there.
FRCC leading rusher Dylan Hendricks came into the game averaging 188 yards an outing, but was held to 99 yards on 20 carries by the Bay Port defense. Kendall Karcz had a 90-yard TD run, which was part of the 256 yards on the ground for Pulaski.
Krause, not generally known for his running prowess, had another huge night carrying the ball for Bay Port, as he rushed for 144 yards on 17 carries. The senior signal-caller has now galloped for 297 yards in the last two weeks combined. Gash added 85 yards on 12 carries, while Calawerts chipped in with 56 on 14 attempts.
Krause was also 11-of-15 passing for 91 yards. Receiver Cordell Tinch had nine receptions for 75 yards.
Defensively, Monty Wendricks added a sack.
Pulaski – 7, 7, 6, 7 – 27
Bay Port – 14, 13, 14, 7 – 48
