Monday, December 2, 2024
The Notre Dame Tritons are Div. 3 State Champions. Friday morning they took on the Catholic Memorial Crusaders and dug in for what turned out to be one heck of shootout on the field of Camp Randall Stadium in Madison.
“There are a lot of feelings and they are all good,” said Notre Dame Head Coach Michael Rader. “It will all settle in as we get back on the bus and take a step back and just realize we had a lot of good things happen here. It’s a lot of satisfaction and joy.”
The day was marked with historic moments for the Tritons. First and foremost the Tritons won their first state championship since 2015. Second the Tritons’ Christian Collins did what no other player has ever done in any division of WIAA state tournament games, that being registering a 409 yard rushing day.
This championship marks the third state championship earned by the Tritons and their fourth overall after winning a WISAA D1 title in 1992.
“It feels amazing,” said Collins about the new record. “It couldn’t have done that without my front line obviously, but there’s no better feeling to have my senior year end like that.”
The scoring came in by the truck loads. The first quarter read out 21-7 Tritons. The second, was a 14-7 differential in Catholic Memorial's favor, the Third a 14-7 differential in the Tritons favor and the fourth saw one TD by the Tritons, helping to put the Tritons on top 49-28.
“We started fast and we held them to a punt in the beginning,” said Radar. “We scored then got that pick-six by Cayden Kiefert. It was huge for our momentum and then we just stuck with it. We just stuck to our game plan. We tried to limit big plays but they got a few but we had more big plays than they did.”
Of Notre Dame’s 11 offensive possessions six ended in pay dirt, and of those six five were carried across the goal line by C. Collins.
Collins started his record breaking day with a first quarter TD from 25 yards back to give his team an early 7-0 lead.
Catholic Memorial responded with a four yard passing TD from MJ Mitchell to Jake Berkholtz to knot the game up at 7-7.
A couple minutes later Jack Collins broke into the end zone for Notre Dame on an eight yard rush, helping to lift the Tritons to a 14-7 lead.
On the ensuing Catholic Memorial possession the first play of the drive saw Mitchell throw the ball into the hands of Cayden Kiefert of Norte Dame. Kiefert sprinted into the end zone untouched for the pick-six. After the defensive score the Tritons led 21-7.
Near the beginning of the second quarter the Crusaders’ Marvanous Butler-Brown broke free on a huge 87 yard pass reception from Mitchell which he carried for the TD and the 21-14 differential.
Berkholtz and Mitchell connect on the next Crusader possession, this time scoring from 11 yards back to bring the score to 21-21. It would be the last time the Crusaders would catch up to the Tritons, as Notre Dame’s Collins began what would be a record setting tear through the Catholic Memorial defense.
Over the remaining minutes of the game all TDs that were rung in, minus one, were carried in by C. Collins.
When asked about turning to Collins for the majority of the work load for the offense this game Radar responded, “That’s been the game plan all year. We have other weapons and we can use them but if he’s doing what he can do we are just going to keep doing it.”
With two minutes left in the half, C. Collins broke loose on a 41 yard rush to the end zone.
It took most of the third quarter to expire before Notre Dame struck again, this time on a 65 yard rush by C. Collins.
Catholic Memorial’s last score of the night was registered with 23 second left in the third as Butler Brown pulled in a 16 yard pass from Micthell for the 35-28 differential.
Collins increased the lead once again with three seconds left in the third, cruising to his longest rush of the night, hitting pay dirt from 73 yards back.
Collins final TD, and the game’s final TD, was registered with 4:38 left in the game. This final TD was rushed in from seven yards back.
On the night, C. Collins led all rushers, ever, with 408 yards and 5 TDs on 39 carries. Teammate Charlie Honacek posted 16 yards on one carry while Jack Collins got 14 yards and one TD on two carries.
“We’ve been stressing it all year that this is the year,” said Collins. “This is the year to win state. We just stressed that this will be the last year play together collective so just wanted to make the most of it. This team has meant everything to me, it’s a brotherhood,”
Through the air Max Pierce posted 23 yards on a two of six performance. C. Collins pulled down one pass for 13 yards while Honacek caught one for 10 yards.
Catholic Memorial’s Mitchell led the rushing game for the Crusaders with 75 yards on 16 carries. Through the air Mitchell was 15 for 26 for 309 yards and 4 TDs.
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