By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
SHAWANO — West De Pere wide receiver Aaron Wagner doesn’t always get the hype like his fellow teammates at other skilled positions.
However, his 122 receiving yards single-handedly helped the Phantoms squeak out a 20-12 Bay Conference road victory Nov. 6 over Shawano.
“Shawano is a talented football team,” said Chris Greisen, West De Pere head coach. “Their philosophy was to get their quarterback to throw it early, and he completed a number of passes. We are fortunate we made a few extra plays than they did down the stretch.”
Phantoms quarterback Josh Blount completed 9-of-14 passes for 139 yards, but West De Pere’s vaunted rushing attack was held to 91 yards.
Gage Timm threw for 187 yards and one touchdown in defeat for Shawano.
The Hawks (4-3 overall) put together an impressive opening series, which went 15 plays and 56 yards, but the drive stalled at the Phantoms’ 8-yard line after Timm couldn’t connect with split end Elliott Lowney in the end zone.
After back-to-back interceptions by both teams, they also each had a drive end with a turnover on downs.
With about six minutes left until halftime on its fourth drive of the night, West De Pere (3-1) got on the scoreboard first after Blount first connected with Wagner on a 40-yard completion.
One play later, Najeh Mitchell scored from two yards out to give the Phantoms a 6-0 lead after the point-after attempt (PAT) failed.
On their final possession of the second quarter, the Hawks drove from their own 30, and nine plays later, found themselves with a fourth down from the West De Pere eight.
A little razzle-dazzle ensued, as wide receiver Ashton Henning took the reverse and headed into the end zone with no time remaining on the clock to even the score at 6-6.
The PAT was unsuccessful.
“We have lots of things to clean up,” Greisen said. “Shawano is a well-coached team and made the play there at the end of the half.”
After a quick three and out by West De Pere to start the third quarter, the Hawks executed their bubble screens and quick outs to perfection.
They went 74 yards in 16 plays, capped by a 17-yard touchdown reception by Henning for a 12-6 lead with 3:14 left in the quarter.
Again, the PAT was no good.
After a huge kickoff return that set the visitors up near midfield, Blount connected with Wagner for 54 yards on two completions.
Blount then snuck in from the one to give West De Pere a 13-12 lead with about a minute remaining in the third.
“I’m glad coach gave me the shot tonight,” said Wagner. “Josh put down a bunch of nice balls for me, and I knew I had to make the catches with Shawano’s defense getting after our backs. As a senior, it felt nice to contribute.”
With two minutes remaining and facing a fourth and inches, Mitchell took a handoff from Blount and scampered 47 yards to pay dirt to end the scoring.
Shawano had one last opportunity to send the game into overtime, but the West De Pere secondary came up big on four consecutive downs to ensure victory.
The Phantoms, a No. 1-seed in their Division 2 pod, will host No. 4 Grafton Friday, Nov. 13.
The winner of that game will take on the winner of No. 3 Luxemburg-Casco/No. 2 Plymouth the following week.
“It’s good to be playing football the next couple of weeks with all the challenges everybody has had to endure,” Greisen said.
Box score
West De Pere: 0, 6, 7, 7 — 20
Shawano: 0, 6, 6, 0 — 12