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Southwest beats weather, East in battle of winless teams

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By Josh Staloch

Staff Writer


GREEN BAY – Behind an effective running game, the Green Bay Southwest High School football team took care of visiting Green Bay East, 36-8, in the pouring rain Friday, Sept. 24.

The win for the Trojans (1-5 overall) was the first under co-head coaches Aaron VanEperen and Chad Thiry.

“It feels good,” VanEperen said. “It’s been a tough year with different things – injuries, quarantine, you name it. I’m proud of the way they responded. They show up each week and work their butts off.”

The Red Devils (0-6) began the game with an onside kick attempt, but the Trojans’ special teams unit played it well.

Southwest started their first drive at the East 45-yard line.

Trojans quarterback Mason Meyer got his team into the red zone with a nice completion to Conner Pytleski.

Meyer took it in himself later in the drive on a 3rd-and-5 play after beating a couple of defenders along the sideline to the end zone.

Pytleski added the 2-point conversion to make it 8-0.

With the weather poised to limit both offenses, East opted to keep the ball on the ground for most of the game, with Darius Miller getting the bulk of his team’s touches.

Miller rushed 26 times for 80 yards.

Southwest’s Croix Zacharias had a big night with 124 yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns, while also leading the defense with 12 tackles,

Zacharias got going on the Trojans’ second drive of the game after he put in a couple of big runs to get the ball down to the goal line before punching it in from a yard out for a 15-0 advantage.

Into the third quarter and down 29-0, East caught a break thanks to a heads-up play from Anthony Posenke.

After a stalled drive, Southwest elected to punt on fourth down.

The punt was blocked, and Posenke was there to pick up the ball for a scoop and score.

Quarterback Evan Chanthadouangsy ran in the 2-point conversion attempt to make it 29-8.

From there, the Southwest run game took over and chewed up the clock.

The Trojans added another score on a keeper by Meyer to close it out.

“We’ve been pushing our O-line all year long,” VanEperen said. “They responded tonight. They played hard and opened up some huge holes – exactly what you’re hoping the O-line will do. (Zacharias) also did a nice job of getting behind them and finishing his runs.”

Aaron Van Eperen, Anthony Posenke, Chad Thiry, Evan Chanthadouangsy, green bay east, Green Bay Southwest

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