By Rich Palzewic
Contributing Writer
KIMBERLY – For the first time since the 2006 season, the Bay Port football team has started 0-2
– but it didn’t go down without a fight.
After suffering a 35-29 nonconference home loss to Middleton during Week 1, the Pirates (0-2)
dropped a road tilt at Kimberly on Aug. 24, 17-14.
With the score tied 14-14 late in the game, Kimberly’s Lance Doering kicked a 21-yard field goal
with 47 seconds remaining to help seal the game.
The Pirates had one final shot to tie the game or go ahead, but Sam McGivern sacked
quarterback Carter Kallies as time expired on an attempted pass play.
“It was a great high school football game,” Bay Port coach Gary Westerman said. “We extended
some drives on defense with penalties. We played hard on both sides of the ball – we just
needed one more stop and one more score but couldn’t get it done.”
On the Papermakers game-winning drive, they took almost 10 minutes off the clock and
converted two crucial fourth-down plays before Doering’s field goal.
On the latter fourth-down play from the Pirates’ 11-yard line, Kimberly appeared to fumble, but
the official closest to the play ruled the runner was down before the ball popped out.
Bay Port came out of the gates with an impressive 12-play drive that took 6 minutes, 29
seconds off the clock, but an incomplete pass on fourth down ended the promising start.
The Pirates’ defense did the rest in the first quarter – holding the Papermakers to one yard of
offense on their only drive of the opening 12 minutes.
After a punt on Bay Port’s next possession, Kimberly went up a score when quarterback Carson
Pendleton hit Bryson Vieth on a 14-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter.
Not to be outdone, the Pirates again put together a long drive – this one covering 83 yards on
18 plays, culminating with a 3-yard touchdown scamper from Kallies.
Owen Bellisle’s point-after attempt made it 7-7 just before halftime.
The key play on the drive came when running back Tevyn Montgomery dashed his way down
the right sideline for 36 yards on a third-down play.
“Those were two impressive drives,” Westerman said. “That helps us out on defense. We held
the ball a long time and that limited how many plays Kimberly could run.”
After a pair of punts by each team in a scoreless third quarter, the Papermakers jumped ahead
14-7 after a Gavin Tyson 2-yard score and Doering’s subsequent point-after attempt early in the
fourth quarter.
Bay Port showed it has quick-strike ability on its next drive.
It took the Pirates only three plays to cover 71 yards after Kallies scored from 19 yards out on a
drive that took less than a minute to complete.
On the first play of the game-tying drive, Kallies hit wide receiver Sawyer Torp on a 46-yard
bomb to the Kimberly 25-yard line.
“There are no moral victories – we’re still 0-2,” Westerman said. “We have a lot of room to
grow and improve, but I told the guys after the game that everything is still in front of them.
You can still win a state championship going 12-2.”
Bay Port outgained the Papermakers in total offense, 249-217.
The Pirates were playing their second straight game without injured linebacker Landon
Gauthier, a Wisconsin commit.
For Kimberly, this was the first time it got a chance to play this season after its Week 1 game
against Milwaukee Marshall was canceled.
“It was another great game against Coach Westerman,” Kimberly coach Chad Michalkiewicz,
who used to coach at De Pere, said. “They are well-coached. When you play football programs
like Bay Port, you know they’re going to get better every week. I’d say there is a great chance
we’ll see them again (in the playoffs), and they will be a better team then.”