BY RICH PALZEWIC
CORRESPONDENT

SUAMICO – In their stiffest test of the season, the Bay Port football team did just enough to remain undefeated.
Despite some costly mistakes, the No. 4 ranked Pirates narrowly escaped with a 21-14 Fox River Classic Conference victory over Green Bay Southwest on Sept. 29 at Bay Port High School on parents night.
In a battle of the last two undefeated teams in the FRCC, Bay Port (7-0) came in averaging over 50 points per game, but a stout Trojans’ (6-1) defense made this game a low-scoring affair.
The Pirates now sit atop the FRCC alone, one game ahead of both Southwest and Notre Dame. Bay Port has remaining games against De Pere (3-4) and Preble (5-2).
“We didn’t have our best stuff, but we still found a way to win,” said Bay Port head coach Gary Westerman. “We had some mistakes that we have to clean up, but it was a really good win against a strong opponent.
“Southwest is a really good football team. I don’t know if it’s fair to compare this game to other ones, but I thought we moved the ball really well on offense. We just made too many mistakes that cost us points.”
The biggest mistake of the game came in the fourth quarter with Bay Port leading 21-7. Facing a fourth down play, Southwest’s Josh Komis’ punt was blocked, but a Bay Port defender unsuccessfully tried to recover the punt downfield. Since the Trojans finally recovered the blocked punt beyond the first-down marker, they took over with a fresh set of downs. Just over two minutes later, Komis plunged in from the one to pull Southwest within a score.
“That was a big mistake,” Westerman said. “You need to just get out of the way there and not touch it. In the heat of the moment kids get excited and want to jump on that, but that mistake eventually led to points for them.”
After the Trojans’ score, Bay Port had a chance to close out the game on offense, but a penalty on first down at the Southwest 46 stopped the momentum. After a sack and an incomplete pass, the Pirates punted the ball away and gave the Trojans one last shot with 3:20 remaining and 85 yards away from a tying TD.
Southwest drove to the Bay Port 40, but the defense came up huge to force a turnover on downs. The Pirates sealed the victory with a first down on the ensuing possession to end the game.
“Had they scored, they definitely would have gone for two (to try and win the game),” added Westerman. “They have a lot of guys playing both ways, so we knew that we had to come up big.”
With the win, Bay Port won its 16th FRCC contest in a row, one away from tying the conference mark of 17 set by Ashwaubenon from 2012-14. The Pirates haven’t lost a conference game since October 16 of 2015.
“I think that stuff is more for you guys (the media),” said a smiling Westerman about the streak. “Honestly for us, we are just going to try and go 1-0 against De Pere next week.”
Bay Port jumped out to a 7-0 lead on the first play of the second quarter when Cordell Tinch “caught” a 10-yard TD pass from quarterback Isaac Krause on a jet sweep. The score capped off an 11-play, 92-yard drive.
Bay Port made it 14-0 midway through the second quarter when Krause rushed one in from four yards out.
After the Trojans scored right before halftime, the Pirates went 64 yards on 11 plays and scored on a Krause 5-yard TD run on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Krause, who finished with 137 yards rushing on 29 carries, now has 10 rushing TDs in his last four games. He also added 165 yards through the air on 16-of-20 passing.
The duo of Jacob Calawerts and Isaiah Gash were limited to 39 yards rushing on 14 carries, while receiver Cordell Tinch – who returned after a one-game suspension – had ten receptions for 74 yards.
Defensively, Bay Port held Southwest to 239 yards of total offense and 16 minutes and 12 seconds of possession. In comparison, the Pirates held the ball for 31:36 and had 341 total yards.
The hard-running double threat of running back Josh Komis and quarterback Nick Howard were held to 136 yards rushing on 25 carries.
Southwest – 0, 7, 0, 7 – 14
Bay Port – 0, 14, 0, 7 – 21
First quarter
No scoring
Second quarter
BP – Cordell Tinch 10 pass from Isaac Krause (Owen Miller kick)
BP – Krause 4 run (Miller kick)
SW – Josh Komis 1 run (Camden Czarnecki kick)
Third quarter
No scoring
Fourth quarter
BP – Krause 5 run (Miller kick)
SW – Komis 1 run (Brian Dutkowski kick)
Individual stats
Rushing: BP – Isaac Krause, 29-137; SW – Josh Komis, 13-89.
Passing: BP – Krause, 16-20-0-165; SW – Nick Howard, 6-21-0-73.
Receiving: BP – Cordell Tinch, 10-74; SW – Will Pyletski, 1-30.