GREEN BAY — The De Pere Redbirds found a 5-0 victory over the Bay Port Pirates at home on Thursday, Sept. 10. 

The Redbirds are off to a successful start to their season after holding off another highly competitive FRCC team, the Green Bay Preble Hornets, with a 3-0 win on Tuesday, Sept. 8. 

“It’s like a statement to the rest of the conference and the state that we were able to beat No. 7-ranked Preble on Tuesday and then come back two days later and beat a team like Bay Port who has it out for us 5-0. It really shows everyone who we are,” said Shanda. 

Game Recap

To kick off the match, the Redbirds and Pirates both came out battling as each team was looking to go up first. 

About 19 minutes into play, De Pere’s Jameson Jauquet found the back of the net on a 1v1 with the keeper to give the Redbirds the momentum they needed to stay out front. 

Bay Port’s Elijah Wettstein had an opportunity to even the score with a shot on dram followed up by Cole Belanger, but De Pere Keeper Oscar Baumgart managed to keep the ball out of the net about 5 minutes before the half. 

The Redbirds continued to work the ball up the field, playing out of the back as Brady Shanda found a chance to rip a low driven ball into the far post from the edge of the box to go up 2-0 heading into the half. 

“We’d like to work on switching the ball more and being a little more clean in the back and not giving up any more chances or shots on goal so we can’t get scored on,” said Shanda. 

Though it was clear Bay Port attempted to regroup at the half and come out firing, a quick set of back to back goals, one by Shanda on a volley in the box and a Maxim Skurka follow up shot around the 52 minute mark put the Redbirds up 4-0. 

Despite the deficit, the Pirates Keeper Jackson Schuh strung together back to back saves around the 65th minute, holding the Redbirds to 4. 

As Bay Port became desperate to find the net and De Pere worked to keep their shutout by clearing the ball, repeated long balls over the top led to chaos just before the Redbirds were awarded a penalty kick for a tripping in the box on a breakaway with 3 minutes left to play. 

Maxim Skurka’s controlled ball into the near post was saved by Schuh. 

Yet, with seconds left to play, Skurka managed to find the back of the net organically with a perfectly placed near-post shot to make the final score 5-0. 

“We never stopped scoring until the very end. We had a goal in the 77th minute and we never gave up, even when we were up 4-0,” said Shanda.