Sunday, October 13, 2024
By Josh Staloch
Correspondent
DE PERE – The West De Pere High School football team is off to a strong start to its 2022 campaign with a 24-0 victory over Hortonville on Friday that saw the Phantoms in control on offense, defense and special teams.
“They’re a good team and we knew we were going to have to play well,” West De Pere coach Chris Greisen said. “It’s the first time in my tenure here that we’re 1-0. So it’s good, but it’s a testament to the kids’ hard work. They put in the work during the offseason and this is the result.”
The Phantoms got an immediate lift from their special teams unit as the game’s first play ended with West De Pere successfully recovering an onside kick attempt.
The ensuing drive ended with a three-and-out. However, the Polar Bears’ defense was extremely rigid in the early stages of the season opener.
The same could be said for the Phantoms defense as well. After shutting down Hortonville’s first possession, West De Pere found itself in a tough spot with the Polar Bears threatening inside the red zone. But, on a third-and-3 play from the 11-yard line, 6-foot-3 senior linebacker Thomas Mudd picked off a John Sargent pass to put an end to the threat.
The teams went back-and-forth, locked in a scoring stalemate for almost the entire first half. Hortonville put itself in position to take the lead on a field goal midway through the second quarter, but West De Pere’s special teams unit came up with another big play and blocked the kick.
Starting their next drive at midfield, the Phantoms went to work on a methodical march towards the goal line.
Najeh Mitchell, the team’s elusive, hard-charging running back, had been kept relatively quiet up to that point in the game but caught fire when his squad needed a score. His bruising runs, along with a nice keeper play from quarterback Duke Shovald put the Phantoms in scoring position before Shovald, with time winding down in the second quarter, found Joseph Joiner with a nice pass for the game’s first touchdown.
“Yeah, he’s our guy,” Greisen said of Mitchell, his team’s feature ground weapon. “He did such a nice job tonight, especially those tough runs at the end. And our offensive line buckled down, started getting some good double teams and guys started getting tired. We pride ourselves on being in good shape and that showed I think in the second half.”
West De Pere’s defense kept up the pressure to begin the third as Hortonville’s first possession of the half was derailed largely thanks to a sack from Isaac Kaster.
Mitchell went back to work on the ground later in the third, picking up nice chunks of yards and moving the chains methodically before Shovald hit Ryder Lesage with a nice pass on a second-and-5 from the 22-yard line. Lesage shrugged off several Polar Bear attempts to bring him down and rumbled across the goal line to make it a two-touchdown game.
The Phantoms capped off their season opener with yet another gem from their special teams unit in the fourth quarter. After the offense found itself facing a 4th-and-24, kicker Bryce Smith calmly nailed a 39-yard field goal to put the game away.
“Well, we definitely try to coach them up in all phases of the game,” Greisen said of the Phantoms’ special teams play. “Credit to our coaches. They put in a lot of time preparing and to be able to come in the first game of the season and execute the way they did, they played really well.”
