BY MURRAY GLEFFE
CORRESPONDENT
DE PERE-On this night, the luck of the Irish came to an end.
The West De Pere Phantoms football team ran for 326 yards en route to a 35-6 victory over the Freedom Irish. (Oct. 26)
Quarterback Josh Blount rushed for 130 yards and three touchdowns, and Sam Mommaerts added 105 on the ground and a lone touchdown.
The Phantoms defense once again held an offense to under 100 yards (70) for the game.
Evan Frisque led West De Pere with five solo tackles and Alex Spitzer had two solo and three assisted.
Standout Irish quarterback Reeve Lambrecht entered the game with 1,894 passing yards, but on this night was 6 of 16 for 50 yards and one interception.
The Phantoms defense almost forced a miscue on the very first play of the game.
Lambrecht was forced out of the pocket, hit from behind, and appeared to fumble the ball.
It was determined that his arm moved forward causing an incomplete pass.
It didn’t matter, as the Irish quickly went three and out with a shanked punt of just 10 yards to boot.
The Phantoms set up shop on the Irish side of the field and needed just nine plays to go up 7-0 after Blount plunged in from a yard out.
“We started with a long drive and kind of continued from there,” said Jack Batten, Phantoms football coach.
The second drive for Freedom resulted in negative yardage as well but a good punt by Jack Jacobs left West De Pere at their own 14 for series number two.
The Phantoms ran 11 of their 12 plays on the ground and with just over 11 minutes remaining in the second quarter, Mommaerts took a handoff from Blount and scurried down the right sidelines 34 yards and into the end-zone to go up 14-0.
A third three and out by the Irish, left the Phantoms primed to take control of the ball game.
Their third series started at their own 21 and once again they didn’t deviate from the run game.
Minutes continued to come off the clock and after two successful third down conversions, Blount scored his second touchdown of the night from one yard out to put the Phantoms up 21-0 with 4:51 left till halftime.
It has become a theme in recent weeks that the Phantoms are not satisfied scoring just once with under five minutes left till the halftime but rather multiple times.
After Freedom received the kickoff and drove down the field it appeared the Irish would cut into the Phantoms margin.
With a 3rd and 23 from the Phantoms 28, Lambrecht was picked off by Justin Mannisto completely taking the sails out of the Irish team.
“The play by Justin was huge just before half,” said Batten. “It ended up being a 14 point swing where they could have cut the margin down to two scores, and instead our defensive back made a play and then we pop one in to go in big at the half.”
The Phantoms had 1:54 remaining till halftime and 80 yards to go to pay-dirt.
Rather than play it safe and take a three-touchdown lead into the locker room, they looked to score.
On third down, Blount made a play with his feet running what seemed like 60 yards for a 24-yard gain and first down to midfield.
He carried the ball six more times (on the drive) and eventually went in from two yards out with just seconds remaining till halftime to give West De Pere a comfortable 28-0 lead at halftime.
The Phantoms John Edinger made a leaping interception to start the second half, and Cody Cavil (still recovering from an early season injury) scored on a five-yard touchdown gallop to give the home team a five-touchdown margin.
The Irish’s only points of the game came on a hail-mary from Lambrecht to Hunter Wiese with no time remaining on the clock.
“I’m proud of the way these guys have taken the season one week at a time,” Batten said. “They haven’t looked ahead. Tonight was a very tough, physical game. We know what lies in front of us next Friday with their (Tritons) passing game. We have another week of football in November, so we’re very pleased.”
The Phantoms improve to 11-0 on the season and will take on the Notre Dame Tritons in a level three quarterfinal matchup Nov. 2 at West De Pere High School.
Box Score:
West De Pere 7, 21, 0, 7 35
Freedom 0, 0, 0, 6 6
