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Bay Port soccer rallies to defeat De Pere

BY RICH PALZEWIC
SPORTS EDITOR


DE PERE – The Bay Port boys’ soccer team jumped ahead of De Pere, fell behind and eventually outlasted the Redbirds 5-3 in a Fox River Classic Conference game at De Pere High School Oct. 11.

The Pirates (10-7-3 overall, 4-3-2 FRCC) took a 2-0 lead on back-to-back goals by Payton Schilz (32nd minute) and Ken Franks (39th minute), only to see the Redbirds (5-10-2, 2-5-1) score three unanswered goals to take the lead early in the second half.

“It was an interesting game,” said Bay Port head coach Travis Herber. “Sometimes the momentum in soccer – just like in football – swings drastically one way or the other. I was really proud of the boys and how they came back. (Oct. 9) we got down to Sheboygan North, but we weren’t able to claw our way back in that one – tonight we did.”

Bay Port came into the game winless in their last three games, while De Pere is winless in its last four contests.

The Redbirds got goals from Jakob Bey (40th minute), Sam Dorchester (56th minute) and Sam Moran (57th minute) to surge ahead, before the Pirates came back with three consecutive of their own.

Schilz scored his second of the game in the 64th minute to tie the game before Justin Howe (78th minute) and Peyton Nichols (86th minute) ended the scoring.

“It was a fun game with a lot of scoring opportunities,” said De Pere head coach Dusty Rhodes. “In the end, Bay Port was able to put away a few more of its opportunities, but I was proud of our team. We made some good adjustments on the fly.”

Both Herber and Rhodes both concurred that it will be hard to predict what seeds their young teams will receive in the upcoming WIAA D1 sectional, as other teams might have better records than their squads, but don’t play the competition like they do in the FRCC.

“I will say this year’s playoffs will be exciting,” Rhodes said. “There are no real teams that are head-and-shoulders above everyone else – that’s the first time in like 3-4 years. It’s a wide-open field.”

Both teams will open up Oct. 16, which a second-round game Oct. 20 if they win the opener.

“You have teams that come in from certain conferences in our bracket that just look at records and not the level of competition,” Herber added. “In all honesty, I don’t see any team in our sectional that is dominant this year – there’s a lot of parity. If we play solid like I know we can, we can play with anybody in our group.”

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