Wildcats hold off Norse in DC opener
CJ Dummer of Blair-Taylor turned up the field and into the end zone during the first quarter of his team’s win over Whitehall last Friday. B-T scored 42 points in the first half and held on for a 49-38 win. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
Whitehall’s Mason Pientok broke loose during Friday’s game against Blair-Taylor. The Norse made the game interesting with 30 points in the second half, but lost by 11. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
Hunter Wagner knew his team just needed a first down.
The Blair-Taylor football team had a 42-8 lead at halftime, but host Whitehall exploded in the second half and had taken the momentum. The Norse had scored 24 straight points and pulled within 11. B-T recovered an onside kick, but needed to convert a third down with nine yards to go to clinch the win.
With fewer than 90 seconds remaining in the game and Whitehall down to one timeout, B-T coach Seth Dale chose to be aggressive. The first-year coach called a passing play that asked Wagner to sprint down the field, but the senior knew the situation and cut the route short.
“(Wagner) saw that the corner was playing 15 yards off and we only needed nine yards for the first down,” Dale said. “It was a good call on his part to cut the route short because the most important thing at that time is getting a first down.”
Wagner caught the pass for a first down and the Wildcats kneeled the rest of the clock out.
The Wildcats took advantage of five Whitehall turnovers in the first half to take a big lead.
Whitehall fumbled the ball on its second play from scrimmage to give B-T the ball at midfield. B-T drove down the field and took the lead on a short touchdown run by Ethan Kniseley.
The Norse then muffed the ensuing kickoff and B-T recovered at Whitehall’s 31-yard line. B-T scored again on an 11-yard pass from Tavian Shramek to CJ Dummer.
Kniseley intercepted Whitehall’s Mason Pientok on the next drive and returned the ball down to the Whitehall 20. Shramek ran for 10 yards on the first play before Kniseley finished the drive with a four-yard touchdown run. The two-point conversion pass to Kole Trapp made the score 20-0 with about a minute left in the first quarter.
Pientok fumbled on Whitehall’s next possession, giving B-T the ball at midfield again. Shramek connected on a deep pass to Dummer that gained 40 yards. Shramek finished the drive with a touchdown run up the middle, then connected with Dummer on the two-point pass that made the score 28-0.
“We just had some mistakes that gave (B-T) a short field,” Whitehall coach Tyler Bortle said. “They’re accurate on their passes, they’re very different than last year. They’re good, they’re a good team.”
Whitehall’s next drive went deep in B-T territory, but Bo Killian lost the ball on what would’ve been a first-down run to the B-T 30.
B-T’s Collin Johnson ran for 20 yards on the first play of the drive and finished the possession with a three-yard touchdown run. Johnson led the team with 114 rushing yards in the game.
The Norse broke through the team’s next possession as Pientok and Caydan Johnston broke off big runs before Killian scored from inside the 10. Pientok ran in the two-point conversion to bring Whitehall within 34-8 with 1:43 left in the first half.
But the Wildcats weren’t done. Shramek hit Wagner with a 43-yard pass then the quarterback ran it in from inside the five. The two-point conversion made the score 42-8.
Shramek completed 12-of-19 passes for 200 yards in the game and ran for 90 yards, totaling five touchdowns.
Whitehall nearly scored before halftime, but a Hail Mary pass to Johnston ended just short of the goal line.
In the second half, however, the Norse broke the plane of the end zone enough times to make the game interesting.
On the first play of the third quarter, Killian burst through the line and sprinted for a 64-yard touchdown that made the score 42-14.
B-T’s offense picked up where it left off as Johnson had two long runs before Shramek finished with a short touchdown run. The point after kick put the Wildcats ahead 49-14.
B-T’s offense eventually slowed down and they couldn’t stop the Norse.
Johnston broke off a long run on Whitehall’s next drive before Killian scored and added the two-point conversion to make the score 49-22 with 5:10 left in the third quarter.
B-T drove to Whitehall territory on the team’s next possession, but Conner Stevens made a leaping interception to give the Norse the ball.
After Johnston took the ball into B-T territory, Killian finished the drive, with a run that started up the middle before he cut back and scored from 35 yards out. Killian added the two-point conversion to make the score 49-30 early in the fourth.
Killian ended up with one of the better performances in school history, rushing for 272 yards and four touchdowns. Johnston added 119 yards on eight carries. Whitehall managed 431 yards on the ground, averaging 9.8 per attempt.
For Whitehall, the success was about avoiding mistakes.
“We didn’t change anything,” Bortle said. “We ran our bread-and-butter and the guys got after it better and made it a better second half.”
B-T’s next drive ended with another turnover as Kniseley fumbled the ball to Whitehall.
“I think we left some stuff on the field in that second half,” Dale said later adding that his team’s defense was battling injuries. “At one point, our defensive coordinator looked at me and said ‘we don’t have a varsity linebacker’ because all of our kids were out.”
The Norse ran the ball down the field again, this time ending with a one-yard plunge by Pientok on fourth-and-goal. Killian’s two-point run made the score 49-38 with 2:56 remaining.
B-T recovered the ensuing onside kick and held on by converting a long third down.
“It was a game of perseverance,” Dale said. “We persevered through a lot in that second half. We gave up a lot of points, but we still got the win.”
The Wildcats (2-1, 1-0) will host Augusta (0-3, 0-0) this week. The Beavers are coming off of a 42-0 loss to Pepin/Alma. Whitehall (1-2, 0-1) heads to Cochrane-Fountain City (3-0, 1-0), which defeated Melrose-Mindoro, 34-7, last Friday.
B-T —
Rushing (att./yds.) — Johnson 18/114 Shramek 16/90 Kniseley 5/36
Receiving (rec./yds.) — Dummer 5/81 Kniseley 5/61 Wagner 2/58
Passing (comp./att./yds.) — Shramek 12/19/200
Tackles (solo/total) — Kruse 0/3 Dummer 5/8 Shramek 4/9 Trapp 4/4 Wagner 3/3 Johnson 2/4 Kniseley 9/11 Bluem 0/1 Jahr 4/5 Klink 3/6 Paulson 6/8 Johnson 1/1 Thompson 1/1 Andrews 3/3 Bautista 1/1 Woodward 1/1
WHS —
Rushing (att./yds.) — Killian 29/272 Johnston 8/119 Pientok 7/40
Receiving (rec./yds.) — Johnston 1/39
Passing (comp./att./yds.) — Pientok 1/2/39
Tackles (solo/total) — Pientok 2/3 Stevens 1/5 Johnston 3/4 Steig 2/2 Hansche 1/2 Przybylla 7/10 Semb 3/6 Coburn 2/2 Matejka 1/1 Lisowski 1/2 Smith 0/2 Hutsell 4/6 Herman 5/8
