BY MURRAY GLEFFE
CORRESPONDENT
SEYMOUR-Despite carrying a 5-0 record into Seymour, the West De Pere Phantoms were the underdog on paper in the game.
Fast forward 48 minutes, and there was no doubt who was the better team as the Phantoms walloped the Thunder by a final of 45-0. (Sept. 21)
Running back David Vander Logt rushed for 187 yards and four touchdowns and quarterback David Blount added 171 yards on the ground along with two touchdowns of his own.
“We gave David 20 or so carries tonight, and he did a great job of being patient and waiting for his blocking ahead of him,” said Jack Batten, West De Pere football coach. “For me, he has done everything just a little better from week to week.”
The Phantoms defense once again pitched a shutout and held the opposition to under 70 yards of total offense.
“We’ve given up 21 points in six games,” said Batten. “Our defensive front made it hard for their running backs to get up field right from the start. I think they ran under 35 plays the entire night.”
The Phantoms started their opening drive at their own 24.
VanderLogt and Blount accounted for all nine of the plays that ended with VanderLogt going around left corner to put the Phantoms up 7-0 with 8:50 left in the opening quarter.
The Phantoms offense barely had enough time to catch there breathe as the West De Pere defense turned away the Seymour Thunder in three plays that went backwards from the start.
On their next series, the Phantoms didn’t stray from their strength of running the football.
However, they mixed in a jet sweep to Aaron Wagner and a 31-yard completion to tight end Billy Wyatt.
After Blount went in from just two yards, (that was part of a 13 play,84-yard drive), the Phantoms went up 14-0 with just 1:41 left in the first.
The Thunder went three and out again on their second series and in fact ran only six offensive plays with two punts in the entire first quarter.
After the ensuing punt, VanderLogt took the handoff on the opening play of the second quarter, and appeared to go down amongst Thunder defenders.
All of a sudden, he appeared out of the mayhem and ran 61 yards untouched to the endzone to give the Phantoms a commanding 21-0 lead just seconds into the second quarter.
The Phantoms’ sidelines was busting with energy while barely a sound could be heard from the jampacked Thunder bleachers.
The Thunder finally got some momentum going after quarterback Hunter Clark and running back Bryce Kuske ripped off runs of 12, and 22 yards to set them up near midfield.
However, a holding penalty derailed the drive and Seymour was once again forced to punt.
The Phantoms added a late 26-yard field goal by Sawyer Grovogel to give them a 24-0 lead heading into intermission.
The second half would be eerily similar to the first in that once again the Thunder ran very few plays and was not on the field long enough to sustain any rhythm.
The Phantoms put together drives of 48 and 53 yards in quarter number three to issue a running clock (Phantoms up 38-0) with 59 seconds left in the third quarter.
West De Pere added a late touchdown with a short field after Alex Spitzer made a beautiful leaping interception off Clark.
“We preached to the guys all week that we were the underdogs coming into this road game,” Batten said. “They were ranked in wissports.net and we were unranked. The guys played with an extra edge and chip on their shoulder.”
The Phantoms improve to 6-0 on the season while the Thunder fall to 4-2.
West De Pere will travel to Menasha next Friday in a clash of state powerhouses.
“Two undefeated teams on a Friday night next week at Calder,” Batten said. “It doesn’t get any better than that. They’ve been our one nemesis the past four years. We are going to enjoy this win and then prepare all week for the Bluejays, and I know the kids will be ready to go come gametime.”
Box Score:
West De Pere 14, 10, 14, 7 45
Seymour 0. 0, 0, 0 0
