Ashwaubenon beats Southwest for first victory

By Rich Palzewic
Correspondent
GREEN BAY – With two difficult nonconference losses behind them, the Ashwaubenon football team opened Fox River Classic Conference play Friday night back in familiar territory — with a victory.
The Jaguars used a 28-point second-quarter outburst to help them post a 49-7 Fox River Classic Conference (FRCC) win over Green Bay Southwest.
Ashwaubenon, which lost to Kaukauna (35-14) and Kettle Moraine (34-21) to open the season, got two touchdowns each from Jacob McVane and Jayden Schoen in the second quarter to take a 35-7 lead into halftime.
“Our first two nonconference games prepared us for the FRCC,” Ashwaubenon coach Brian Ryczkowski said. “It’s fun to win the conference opener, but we’ve still got lots of work ahead of us.”
Ryczkowski said the win for the Jaguars (1-2 overall, 1-0 FRCC) was good because of what’s to come in the upcoming weeks.
Ashwaubenon plays at West De Pere (3-0) Sept. 9, at Pulaski (3-0) Sept. 23 and hosts Bay Port (3-0) Sept. 30.
Thus far, those three teams are a combined 9-0 and all state ranked.
“When we got down 21-0 to Kettle Moraine, my players put their foot in the ground and played hard,” he said. “We’ll be battle-tested when we play (the tough conference) teams. We have to beat those teams to be considered a perennial power in the conference.”
After the Jaguars took a touchdown lead about four minutes into the game on a 5-yard touchdown run by Gus Newel, they converted a fourth-and-four late in the first quarter to set up its second score.
Quarterback Boone Kirst — also the FRCC baseball player of the year — hit McVane on a 23-yard strike on the first play of the second quarter.
“We all played well, and the line gave us our holes,” the junior McVane said. “The first two (nonconference) games got us ready for this one.”
After a Southwest (0-3, 0-1) punt, Ashwaubenon was back in the end zone a few minutes later.
Kirst hit McVane from seven yards out to make it 21-0 after AJ Uhl’s extra point.
The touchdown was set up by a Kirst to Newel 48-yard pass earlier in the drive.
The Trojans cracked the scoring column at the 8:42 mark of the second quarter when a fumble was recovered in the end zone by Connor Pytleski.
Leading 21-7, the Jaguars went up three scores when Kirst hit Schoen from 30 yards out with 7:48 remaining until halftime.
With less than 50 seconds showing on the first-half clock, Kirst again hit Schoen, this time with a 28-yard pass and a score.
“This game felt different,” Ryczkowski said. “We had a good week of practice and executed the game plan — I was proud of our effort.”
In the third quarter, McVane had a 64-yard touchdown run called back and Schoen had a 52-yard score also wiped out –- both because of holding penalties.
“Those were frustrating,” Ryczkowski said of the penalties. “We still have things to learn — you’re not going to get every call or have every play go your way. When we had the long scores called back, the guys battled hard and moved on to the next play.”
Caden Van Duyse scored on a 14-yard scamper with 1:22 remaining in the third quarter.
After Uhl’s extra point made it 42-7, a running clock was instituted.
Nathan Barlament’s 10-yard touchdown run closed the scoring in the fourth quarter.
Ashwaubenon’s Eli Brooks also had an interception.
Southwest was playing without senior offensive lineman Thomas Paasch, a Northern Illinois University verbal commit. Paasch missed his third consecutive game with a leg injury, but is slated to return Sept. 9 when the Trojans travel to Green Bay Preble.