By Murray Gleffe

Correspondent

DE PERE-West De Pere’s Cody Cavil had three touchdown runs of 2, 21, and 75 yards to propel the Phantoms to a 42-0 shutout of the Shawano Hawks (Aug. 17).

The Phantoms amassed over 400 yards of total offense and held the Hawks to just 73 yards.

David Vanderlogt led the ground attack with 110 yards, and Cavil added 105 yards on just four carries.

West De Pere took the opening drive of the game and marched 85 yards in 13 plays, capped off by Cavil’s burst up the middle, to give the Phantoms a 7-0 lead with 3:24 left in the first quarter.

The Hawks offense was set up in good field position on two of its three opening possessions thanks to special teams’ blunders on the behalf of the Phantoms.

Thanks to a tremendous front seven the Phantoms turned away each drive and kept the Hawks off the scoreboard.

“We have to shore up our kickoff team and our punt return in practice,” said Jack Batten, West De Pere Head Football Coach. “We gave Shawano great field position on our half of the field and we were fortunate to not give up any points. Our defense really stepped up to force two fourth down incompletions.”

With a majority of the game being played on the ground, possessions were at a minimum and time management was of the essence.

With 9:30 left in the second quarter, and the Phantoms holding a 7-0 lead, the running game went into another gear.

“I thought the kids started slow, and as a team we were very tentative up until the middle part of the half,” said Batten. ”After Cody’s first run, we started to look better offensively with our backs and receivers. It serves as a good reminder that you have to play a complete game”

After the Hawks had given up the ball on downs, Cavil took a handoff from quarterback Josh Blount, cut left, back up the middle, and was gone.

The 75-yard touchdown run put the Phantoms up 14-0.

After a quick three and out by the visitors, West De Pere struck again just five plays into their next series.

This time Vanderlogt was the recipient of bolting across the end-zone from 50 yards out.

If you went to go grab a box of popcorn, you might have missed some scoring.

After a Hawks punt, the Phantoms hit pay dirt once again.

This time Blount found tight end Billy Wyatt streaking across the field.

Wyatt scampered across the goal-line to give the Phantoms a 28-0 lead with 3:22 still left till half.

If West De Pere could stop the Hawks on offense and score before half, they would ensure a running clock would be admissible for the remaining two quarters.

And that is exactly what happened.

After a third consecutive punt landed short, the Phantoms drove 47 yards in just under two minutes, capped off by a Cavil two-yard plunge to give them a 35-0 lead going into the break.

When the dust had settled, the Phantoms had scored 28 points in less than 10 minutes of game action.

“We were playing a field defense and Tyler, Evan, Levi, and Jake (to name a few) made some great tackles on key downs for us,” said Batten. “When we forced the punts, it gave our offense confidence to drive down the field.”

The second half flew by with each team running less than 20 plays each.

The lone score came on a four-yard touchdown run by Sam Mommaerts late in the third to add to the Phantoms lead.

“We were able to get our second team kids in to give them great opportunities throughout the second half,” said Batten. “We are still looking for players. It’s always a competition in practice and to see who is willing to step up and do the work.”

West De Pere improves to 1-0 on the season and they will travel to New London next Friday to take on the Bulldogs.

Box Score:

West De Pere 7, 28, 7, 0   42

Shawano         0, 0, 0, 0    0