Notre Dame Academy earns State Championship bid

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – In their WIAA State Semifinal game on Friday, Nov. 15, the Notre Dame Academy Tritons earned their way to the 2024 Division 3 WIAA State Championship with their 41-21 win over La Cross Logan.

The Tritons will take on Catholic Memorial on Friday, Nov. 21, at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison. 

The Tritons fell short of this goal one year ago with a 30-15 loss to Rice Lake. 

Rice Lake competed at the Division 2 level this year, triumphing over the West De Pere Phantoms to again claim a spot in their State Final. 

This year, the undefeated team wasn’t going to let history repeat itself. 

Head Coach Mike Rader said, “Our kids worked really hard. La Crosse Logan put a really good effort out there, but we expected that. But we were able to find enough plays to win the game.”

Running back Christian Collins secured 5 of the team’s 6 touchdowns with 339 rushing yards for the night. 

Collins was the state’s leading rusher last season and reprised his role near the top of the leaderboard this year, finishing second only to Medford’s Paxton Rothmeier by 2 yards. 

Collins said, “It feels awesome, but I don’t care that much about the stats. We just want to go win State — that’s all that matters.”

Yet, the Tritons’ offensive efforts were matched by their defense when the Tritons came up with a stop inside the 20-yard line after a fourth-quarter turnover on a fumble. 

Looking ahead to the championship game Coach Radar said, “We will put a good week of practice together and have a game plan ready to go."