Kewaunee overcame four turnovers in last Friday’s Div. 6 football playoff opener thanks to some good old-fashioned pancakes and big plays.

The second-seeded Storm took it to the Loyal/Greenwood Greyhounds, 40-7, and earned a Level 2 game at home against a three-seed Cedar Grove-Belgium Friday night at Don Rabas Field. Both teams come in riding seven-game winning streaks after starting the season with two losses sandwiching a Week 2 win. The Rockets are a run-heavy team.

“We have work to do,” said Kewaunee coach Randy Charles. “Cedar Grove is going to be ready to play us tough. We’ll have to be ready to battle all four quarters.”

He said his team needs to clean up the mistakes.

“In playoff football, you can’t have turnovers like that,” Charles said. “Every possession is important, and it can definitely sway a game.”

Diesel Bosdeck completed 8 of 11 passes for 109 yards and a touchdown, but was intercepted three times.
“He’s a gamer; he wants to make plays,” Charles said. “But in some cases you just need to live another down. He’s got to continue to grow and understand he has guys around him. He doesn’t need to do it by himself.”
After an early Blake Temme fumble, Drew Vaughn got a lot of playing time. The six-foot, 180-pound sophomore led the team in rushing with 92 yards on 9 carries, including a 47-yard touchdown burst down the left sideline.

“You need to be able to rely on all your guys to step up when their number is called, and he definitely did that tonight,” Charles said of Vaughn.

Bosdeck, Dane Harrell and Temme all added shorter TD runs. Diesel gained 71 yards in six carries, including a 34-yarder.

Mason Delebreau had two catches for 62 yards, including a 50-yard touchdown. Mason Kovacs gained 32 yards in four catches, and Peyton Schaller 15 in two. Brody Elliott had a 55-yard punt return for a touchdown.

Landon LaTour, a 6-foot-2, 250-pound lineman, got offensive with 11 pancake blocks — the type that leaves the opponent flattened. To put that into perspective, it was two more than the rest of the team combined. Harrell had five.

“We had our ups and downs with the turnovers, but we knew we had to battle back, and we did,” said LaTour, who called it “very chippy both ways” at the line of scrimmage.

“I thought it added to the game, made it fun,” he said. “There was some pretty dirty stuff. It made us angry, and made us want to play better.”

Blake Bortolini had a dozen tackles, eight of them solo. Harrell had eight, LaTour and Garrett LeFevre each seven, and Baylor Elliott six. Ethan Ratajczak had two tackles for loss. Bortolini and Tucker DuFresne each forced fumbles, and Harrell and Elliott each recovered one. Bosdeck and Nicholas Smidel each picked off a pass.

Lux-Casco 42, Merrill 14

The Spartans broke away from a 14-14 halftime tie to hammer Merrill, 42-14 in the last game of the season on L-C’s home turf.

“It was like a boxing match,” said Spartans’ coach Neil Seering. “We stuck to our fight. It was great for our seniors to have that win on their home field. The way they played and persevered, the brotherhood of belief and not giving up. They’re a really good group.”

L-C is a heavy underdog this week on the road at undefeated Port Washington, the top-ranked team in Div. 3.
“The big key is not to make it a four-quarter game,” Seering said. “Don’t worry about winning 50 plays, just focus on the play you’re on. If we can do that, I’m not going to worry about the outcome. Just play our brand of football and give it the best shot we can.”

Seering said his team has been outsized most of the season. At halftime of the Merrill game, he said he told his players not to panic, that they were doing good things.

“I told them we’re just going to keep pushing it in the second half, and we did,” Seering said. “Endurance-wise, I knew that would be a strength for us. It paid off.”

Senior quarterback Eli Derenne rushed for 211 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries, including a 50-yard score. Ben Klass added 107 yards and three TDs on 20 carries, including a 15-yard touchdown.

Derenne threw six passes, completing two for 29 yards. Trenton Price caught one for 18 yards, and Mason Lemens the other for 11.

Ethan Werner led the defense with 13 tackles, including seven solos. Joey Jeanquart and Grant Seering each had five, and Klass and Talon Tassoul each four. Klass had three tackles for loss. Tassoul also recovered a fumble, while Derenne had an interception.