Appleton West improves to 3-0 for the first time since the 2004 season

Isaac Ise's last name is pronounced "E-Z."

The Appleton West junior playmaker was anything but easy for the Green Bay Southwest special teams to handle, as his 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown proved to be the eventual winning score in the Terrors' 20-14 victory over the visiting Trojans in a Fox River Classic Conference-North opener Sept. 4 in Appleton.

After a Southwest touchdown made the score 14-12 with just under two minutes remaining in the first half, Ise took the ensuing kickoff, hit the middle of the field and then found a rail off the right side to race to the end zone.

"Isaac, he's been big-time for us," Appleton West head coach Dominick Thompson said. "He's been doing all the little things – really the whole team has overall. He's a very explosive player offensively and he's been buying in and doing all the little things that the team needs right now. He's even going to have a bigger game as the season progresses."

Charlie Blevins, who has had a big start to the season and entered this week's game with 413 yards rushing and five touchdowns, scored on a 9-yard run in the first half. Connor Navis added a 1-yard plunge to complete the scoring for the Terrors.

"Charlie has always been that guy for us," Thompson said. "We're a predominantly passing team, so we haven't given him as many touches. But this season we knew teams would key in on the quarterback and receiving corps that we have, so we made it a big emphasis this summer to feed him the ball. And he's worked extremely hard. The kid puts in work day-in and day-out. It's only right that he pops off."

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The last time Appleton West was 3-0 to start a season was 2004 under coach Chris Heller. The Terrors finished 8-3 overall and 7-2 in the Fox Valley Association that season. The team has a big game Sept. 11 at De Pere before home games the following two weeks against West De Pere and Bay Port.

"Our kids do a phenomenal job of just staying hungry," Thompson said. "I don't think they're satisfied at all. And those are things we talk about. A 1-0 mentality and winning the day. We take things day-by-day. My staff and myself express to the guys that tomorrow is not promised. We just want to make the best out of the day that is given to us and they've been doing that on and off the field."

Defense, big plays spark Mustangs past Wrightstown

Sometimes great defense isn't just shutting down your opponent – it's also scoring points off turnovers.

Little Chute's Mason Schneider put his team's matchup with Wrightstown out of reach with a 41-yard interception return for a touchdown that gave the Mustangs a 28-14 victory over the Tigers in a North Eastern Conference opener in Little Chute.

Little Chute, the top-ranked team among Small schools in the latest ESPN Wisconsin state media poll, improved to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the conference.

Mustangs coach Mark Krommenacker said his defense was "dominating."

"The defense responded, that's for sure, and I'm super proud of them," Krommenacker said. "Obviously they were well-prepared and have a great plan each week, but it was pretty obvious. When you play a team like Wrightstown, I think it's always gonna end up a game like this from what I've seen. And they're obviously very well-coached, and so to have our defense put that performance and score a touchdown at the end is, as an offensive coach, you can't ask for more."

Schneider said he wasn't entirely sure if he was supposed to score a touchdown or just hit the turf so his team could run down the remaining minutes.

"They ran double hitches and I had the inside flat," he said. "That wasn't even my guy … I don't know. When I picked it off, I didn't know if I was supposed to go down or not because there was two minutes left."

Wrightstown (1-2, 0-1) did a good job bottling up Mustangs standout running back Reece Joten, but the focus on Joten opened up things for Little Chute's other playmakers.

Senior quarterback Jaden Hermsen had touchdown runs of 53 and 4 yards and also had a pair of two-point conversions. Tyler Hietpas also had a 69-yard touchdown run.

"Wrightstown was taking away some of the stuff inside that we like to do," Krommenacker said. "So, yeah, you got to get it pitched out there. And with those wings that we have with Tyler and Trevor [Verhagen], they give us some different opportunities. And our receivers Will [Goffard] and Matthew Peeters out there catching some passes, we have to take advantage of the opportunities. That's what teams are going to do against us, packing it inside against Reece. He's a great running back and we have to have some answers for that."

Alex Van Helvoirt had an 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown for Wrightstown. Claxton Lasecki also scored from 15 yards out for the Tigers.

Freedom crushes New London; Appleton North gets past Hortonville

Axzil Eggert and Owen Henkel had huge games on offense to lead Freedom past New London 63-7. Eggert ran for 159 yards and four touchdowns with Henkel finishing with 175 yards passing and three touchdowns. Eggert had touchdown runs of 21, 3, 26 and 25 yards.

Brock Struensee ran for 112 yards and two touchdowns to lead Appleton North (2-1, 1-0 FVA) past Hortonville 34-17. Owen Rein added 106 yards passing and a touchdown.

AJ Pheifer had 289 yards passing to lead Hortonville.

Around the Valley

Menasha got a big game from Xavier John to upend Oshkosh North 35-14 at Titan Stadium. John passed for two touchdowns and ran for another. Shamir Senyange added a touchdown rushing and a score on a 90-yard kickoff return. Keonte Thigpen had a 59-yard touchdown reception for the Bluejays (2-1, 1-0 FRCC-South). … Braden Heiges had three total touchdowns in Fox Valley Lutheran's 28-21 victory over Seymour. Heiges had 116 yards rushing and 157 yards passing to lead FVL's offense. … Manawa's Carson Stroud threw five touchdown passes in the Wolves' 35-0 victory at Clintonville. He had touchdown throws of 6, 21, 15, 30 and 7 yards.

This story will be updated.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Appleton West improves to 3-0 for the first time since the 2004 season