By Greg Bates
Sports Editor
ASHWAUBENON – If opponents have learned anything from the first six weeks of the football season it
is: don’t allow Bay Port to get off to a fast start.
Ashwaubenon knew that rule of thumb, but it couldn’t stop it from happening on Friday night.
Bay Port’s quick-striking offense put up 21 points in the opening eight minutes of the game as
Ashwaubenon had just six plays and two punts during that sequence.
Bay Port built a 35-0 first-half lead and cruised 42-14 in a Fox River Classic Conference-North (FRCC) game.
“We started off really strong,” said Bay Port junior Blake Buchinger, who rushed for a game-high 92
yards on 13 carries. “I think we were a lot more physical and we could just move the ball. Our O-line
worked really hard today and it was just a good game.”
Bay Port, unbeaten and ranked No. 3 in Division 1 in the latest WisSports.net Coaches Poll, took the
opening kickoff and drove the length of the field. On the sixth play, short-yardage back Tevyn
Montgomery scored from 10 yards out to put his team up, 7-0.
Ashwaubenon (2-5, 2-3 FRCC) couldn’t handle the ensuing kickoff and by the time the Jaguars player
scooped up the ball, he was tackled at his own 4-yard line.
Bay Port (7-0, 5-0 FRCC) forced a three-and-out and punt and took over its next possession on
Ashwaubenon’s 33. Four plays later, it was Montgomery again on a 4-yard touchdown run.
The Jaguars’ offense went three-and-out and punted.
The Pirates dialed up an early dagger as Cole Bensen hit an open Brett Shipley for a 65-yard strike to
make it 21-0 just 8 minutes, 7 seconds into the contest.
“We started fast last week against Pulaski and we thought a start like that again give the guys an
opportunity to be in a back-and-forth game against a really great program and we weren’t able to start
fast and it kind of unraveled from there,” Ashwaubenon coach Brian Ryczkowski said.
Ashwaubenon had its first promising drive, getting all the way down to Bay Port’s 3 before a penalty
pushed them back. A 33-yard field attempt was blocked and Tommy Hall returned it to his team’s 48.
Montgomery hit a trifecta as he scored his touchdown to make it 28-0 with 7:06 remaining in the second
quarter.
“We jumped on them pretty good,” Bay Port coach Gary Westerman said. “Then they put a drive
together and we blocked that field goal, and that was good that we executed. The only points they
scored, we made a couple mental errors on that drive in the first half, and then we completed some
deep balls, so they played softer early on and then they rolled their safeties down in the box and we got
over the top of them. That’s what we have to be able to do. We want to be physical with you and we
want to push you around a little bit and bully you, but in the same respect, if you’re going to roll it
down, we want to get over the top.”
Buchinger scored on a 6-yard run for Bay Port after another three-and-out by Ashwaubenon.
The Jaguars finally got on the board as quarterback Boone Kirst connected with Jayden Schoen for a 6-
yard score with just 46 second left in the opening half.
Bay Port just decided to a take a 35-7 lead into half and knee on it, right? Absolutely wrong.
Buchinger had a 56-yard kickoff return to the Ashwaubenon 34, and on the very next play, Bensen hit
Shipley for a touchdown.
With running clock nearly the entire second half, Ashwaubenon scored with just 21 seconds left in the
game. Kirst hit Jacob McVane from 4 yards out.
“They’re the class of the conference and I think they’re going to be tough to beat whether it’s the last
two week of the season or in a playoffs,” Ryczkowski said. “We know any time we play a Bay Port or
Pulaski, you’re going to measure yourself year to year, and we know we’ve got a ways to go to close the
gap.”
Bensen was 8-for-9 passing for 154 yards and two touchdowns. Shipley hauled in three catches for 107
yards and the two scores.
Bensen also ran for seven times for 58 yards. Montgomery had seven attempts for 51 yards and the
three scores.
As a team, Bay Port compiled 239 yards rushing on 31 carries.
For Ashwaubenon, Kirst was 18-for-26 for 189 yards and two scores. Caden Van Duyse had six grabs for
95 yards.
McVane had a team-leading 61 rushing yards on eight carries.
In a blowout, there were some things Westerman and his coaches wanted to see out of their players —
they did just that.
“We just want to take a step every week, get better in practice every week, be the most physical team
we can be and just try to win every game and play a clean game,” Buchinger said.
Bay Port is at De Pere next Friday, while Ashwaubenon travels to Sheboygan South.