West De Pere beats Green Bay Notre Dame in WIAA D2 title game showdown

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MADISON – The West De Pere football team arguably had the best offense in the state entering its WIAA Division 2 title game showdown against Green Bay Notre Dame on Nov. 21 at Camp Randall Stadium.

The defense wasn’t too shabby when it mattered most, either.

West De Pere beat Notre Dame 28-14, capturing the third title in program history and the first since winning back-to-back D3 championships in 2010 and 2011.

The Phantoms (14-0) are the first team to beat the Tritons (13-1) in the last two seasons, ending their 27-game winning streak.

So many things that made the Phantoms special were on display.

Senior quarterback and South Dakota commit Patrick Greisen threw for 304 yards and two touchdowns, becoming the first player in state title history in either of the top two divisions to throw for more than 300 in the championship game.

His trusty sidekick, senior wide receiver Judeah Kniskern, had seven receptions for 164 yards and a score. It set the D2 state title game record for receiving yards, breaking the 147 that Kettle Moraine’s Drew Wagner had in 2022 against West De Pere.  

And that defense?

While Notre Dame had 345 total yards of offense, the Phantoms held the Tritons under 27 points for the first time this season. It was the fewest points the Tritons have scored since beating De Pere 7-3 in Week 2 last season.

West De Pere junior defensive back Cooper Borowicz had 12 tackles and a half-sack, his biggest stop of the day coming at the start of the fourth quarter when he tackled Notre Dame star running back Kingston Allen short of a first down to give the Phantoms the ball back at their 40.

Senior defensive lineman Jaxon Jashinksy had 9 tackles and a half-sack, senior defensive backs Mason Werner and Ethan Collar each had interceptions and combined for 13 tackles while both junior linebacker Braylon Stegall and senior linebacker Laliwa Delgado had eight total tackles and Stegall forced a fumble.

West De Pere forced three turnovers in all, and while it didn’t exactly hold down Allen, it stopped him twice on fourth down to end drives.

The Phantoms had a goal of winning a state title this season, one year after falling one victory short of reaching the championship round and three years after losing in the title game to Kettle Moraine and Wagner.

This time, they completed the task.

“Yeah, I am so happy,” Greisen said. “I am relieved that it’s over and we did our job.  But this was my one goal, and last year, we didn’t get it. This year, we did. So, it feels great.”

West De Pere and Notre Dame start hot on offense

The offensive fireworks that were projected entering the contest played out that way for the first five drives before things settled down.

Notre Dame won the toss and elected to kick to start the game, and it took the Phantoms just 1 minute, 50 seconds to go up 7-0 on a 1-yard touchdown run from senior running back Ryan Lutz.

Lutz went for 24 yards on the first play and 7 on the second, leading to a 30-yard pass four plays later from Greisen to running back Kainan Strong to the Notre Dame 1 that set up the Lutz score.

The Tritons answered behind Allen, who entered needing 218 yards to set the state’s single-season rushing record and finished with 231 on 43 carries before leaving in the fourth quarter with an injury.

The 6-foot-1, 190-pound junior touched the ball nine times on the 10-play, 71-yard drive, capping it with a 9-yard TD run that tied the score at 7 with 4:58 remaining in the first quarter.

West De Pere needed just six plays and 1:45 to take back the lead on another 1-yard TD from Lutz, before Allen scored on a 28-yard run to again tie the score.

No problem for the Phantoms.

Greisen connected with Kniskern for a 60-yard TD to go up 21-14 with 9:49 left in the first half.

But after those first five possessions ended with TDs, there wasn’t another point scored until midway through the fourth quarter.   

While Allen rushed 26 times for 149 yards in the first two quarters, the Phantoms defense came up with a huge play when it stopped Allen a yard short of the end zone on a fourth-down run with 1:14 left in the first half.

The biggest drama remaining before halftime came when West De Pere faked a punt at its 2 on the ensuing drive, with Greisen hitting a wide-open Garrett Abts for a 35-yard completion.

That was rather gusty, wasn’t it?

“Oh, I knew it was going to work,” said Greisen, who also serves as the team’s punter. “Our defensive coordinator (Kegan Wirtz), who is our special teams, is a genius, man. We practiced that all week. I knew it was coming.”

Although the drive ended four plays later with a turnover on downs at the West De Pere 42, there were only 10 seconds left.

An interception by Werner sent the Phantoms into halftime with the lead.

Whatever wasn’t working early for West De Pere and Wirtz sure seemed to change over the course of the afternoon.

“To be honest, it was just our mistakes that we made,” Stegall said. “We just weren’t set right. We got set right after that, and they had no answer.”

West De Pere extends lead in fourth quarter

The Phantoms put the game away with the only points of the second half after Greisen hit junior wideout Landon Kibbe for a 47-yard TD with 5:18 left.

It simply was a waiting game at that point, watching as the clock ran out to start celebrating.

“Spend all year getting ready for this,” Notre Dame coach Michael Rader said. “The game, it was a hell of a football game. It was an entertaining game. But three turnovers for us is not a way to win a game. Shouldn’t expect to win a game when that happens.”

Notre Dame was making its sixth title game appearance since joining the WIAA in 2000 and was seeking its fourth championship.

A silver ball is still pretty nice.  

“I’m most proud of the guys for sticking through it, and getting ourselves back here,” said Rader, whose team won the D3 title in 2024. “We got moved up a division. It’s pretty challenging to have to fight through that battle of new competitors and programs that have done very well.

“We went through the gauntlet there (in the playoffs) with Slinger and Rice Lake and Rivers Falls and West De Pere. That’s a lot of good football we got to play. So, real proud of what we were able to accomplish, just disappointed we didn’t finish it at the end.”

This was the first time since the WIAA started sponsoring a playoff in 1976 that two local teams faced each other in a title game.

West De Pere improved to 5-3 all-time against Notre Dame, with all eight games coming in the playoffs.

But none were bigger than this one.

“We put in all the work in the offseason,” Stegall said. “Just every single day, every morning at 6 o’clock we would start our practice. It just feels great. It hasn’t really soaked in yet, but I’m feeling it.”

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: West De Pere beats Green Bay Notre Dame in WIAA D2 title game showdown

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