BY MURRAY GLEFFE
CORRESPONDENT
DE PERE-The West De Pere Phantoms football team rolled to a 52-14 victory over the Antigo Red Robins in the first round of the WIAA playoffs. (Oct. 19)
The Phantoms amassed 496 yards. Of that total, 415 were on the ground.
Running back David Vanderlogt led the way with 145 yards and two touchdowns, and Sam Mommaerts added 118 yards along with three touchdowns.
Quarterback Josh Blount completed 3 of 10 passes for 81 yards and one touchdown.
The Phantoms defense held the Red Robins to 164 yards of total offense much of which came on just two plays.
Garrett Kempen led the defense with seven tackles including an interception and fumble recovery.
The Phantoms marched right down the field on their first drive, going 62 yards in 10 plays, capped off by Vanderlogt’s four-yard touchdown run.
After the kickoff return by the Red Robins, they ran only a single play as quarterback Nevin Cornelius dropped the ball and it fell right into the waning arms of Kempen.
“Garrett played a great game for us tonight, especially on the defensive side of things,” said Jack Batten, West De Pere football coach. “He comes to play each and every Friday night. He had two take-aways that really set us up for 14 points which were big.”
West De Pere set up shop at the Antigo 28 after the miscue.
On the first play of the series, Blount took the snap and fired a missile to Tyler Mudd who hauled in the reception in the end-zone giving the Phantoms a 14-0 lead barely four minutes into the game.
Late in the first quarter, Phantoms placekicker Sawyer Grovogel connected on a 22-yard field goal to give the home team a 17-0 lead after the first.
The Red Robins got a bit of a lift midway through the second quarter after a failed fake punt by the Phantoms.
Antigo drove down to the Phantoms 15 before they were stymied on downs.
West De Pere took full advantage of the failed opportunity and drove 85 yards in just seven plays (all runs), with Mommaerts going in from 15 yards out to extend their lead to 24-0 with 4:30 left till halftime.
The Phantoms weren’t satisfied going into the locker room without putting forth another great defensive effort and giving the ball back to the offense.
That is exactly what they did.
Another quick three and out, gave Blount time to operate with the two-minute drill.
It wasn’t even needed.
Four plays in, Mommaerts cut up the middle of the field and then put on a burst of speed down the left sideline to go in from 43 yards out and give West De Pere a convincing 31-0 lead heading into intermission.
Antigo has too much history and tradition to just quit after two quarters of football.
They came out and put together an impressive 65-yard drive that was capped off with a 30-yard pass from Cornelius to Dominic Smith for a Red Robins touchdown to cut the margin to 31-6.
The Phantoms, however, came right back and couldn’t be contained on the ground.
Big chunks of yardage came at will. In fact, for the game, the Phantoms averaged 7.5 yards every time they ran the ball.
“We have five guys that can now run the football for us,” said Batten. “All of them contributed in some fashion this evening.”
After the Phantoms tacked on their fifth rushing touchdown of the evening to make it 38-6, the Phantoms inexplicably gave up a 76-yard touchdown run on fourth and one late in the third quarter.
Smith hit the hole with the option attack and was untouched all the way to the end-zone.
“I was not happy with our third quarter performance this evening,” added Batten. “We had a secondary breakdown and then our second and third tier tackling wasn’t there on that big run they hit us for. We have to shore up things like that this week in practice.”
It would be the final points of the evening for the Red Robins as the Phantoms tacked on two fourth quarter touchdowns-one by Cody Cavil who has come all the way back from an early season injury.
The Phantoms improve to 10-0 on the season with their 38-point margin of victory and will face the Freedom Irish in level two next Friday at West De Pere High School.
“We will get in and look at film of Freedom,” Batten said. “I know they have some good playmakers and athletes that we have to be ready for. We have to keep playing good disciplined football each Friday night.”
Box Score:
West De Pere 17, 14, 7, 14 52
Antigo 0, 0, 14, 0 14
