Green Bay Notre Dame, West De Pere football set to make WIAA state title game history
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There were 45 times entering this season that a local football team qualified for a WIAA state title game.
But not one time since the WIAA started sponsoring a playoff in 1976 have two local teams faced off with a championship at stake.
Until now.
West De Pere (13-0) and Green Bay Notre Dame (13-0) will play in the Division 2 title game at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison.
It’s always a big deal when a team earns a trip to the big stage in football.
Two going up against each other? It doesn’t get much better than that.
“I don’t know what the official record books look like, but I’m assuming it’s pretty unprecedented to have two teams in the same conference, or as close to each other as we are, play in the state championship game,” Notre Dame coach Michael Rader said. “It’s not unprecedented for people from the same community (to play in separate title games). Bay Port and us and West De Pere are all 10 miles apart from each other, and that’s happened before.
“It’s obviously pretty cool. A lot of these kids grew up playing youth sports against each other and are friends with guys on both West De Pere and Bay Port. That’s cool. In some respects, we don’t play those guys in the regular season. If we did, it would probably be a similar amount of interest and energy. When you play at Camp Randall, it becomes a state level energy. But, internally, it’s going to be a big game no matter what.”
It’s also a showdown between two programs that have had as much or more success in the championship round than almost any other area team.
Notre Dame has won three state titles in five appearances (2003, 2015 and 2024) and West De Pere has two championships in five trips (2010 and 2011).
Only Ashwaubenon has more titles than Notre Dame with four. Wrightstown is the only other local team to win multiple championships, having accomplished the feat three times in 1998, 2006 and 2011.
West De Pere’s passing attack could be difficult to contain
The championship game features the most prolific quarterback in the state in West De Pere senior Patrick Greisen and the most prolific running back in the state in Notre Dame junior Kingston Allen.
Greisen became the first player in state history to throw 100 career TDs when he finished with three in a semifinal win over Mequon Homestead.
He leads the state this season with 3,560 yards and 47 TDs, one year after he threw for the third-most passing yards and touchdowns in a single season with 3,846 yards and 49 TDs, behind only Cedar Grove-Belgium’s Josh Weiss (4,231 yards and 59 TDs in 2016) and Appleton Xavier’s Matt Ferris (3,947 and 50 in 2013).
Greisen is the only player in state history with back-to-back seasons of more than 3,500 passing yards and 40 TDs.
It would be a major disservice to think West De Pere is only a passing team, not with a running back in Ryan Lutz who has rushed for 1,842 yards and 26 TDs.
But of the 14 teams competing in one of the seven title games, West De Pere is the only one that has more pass attempts (374) than rushing attempts (303).
No other team is even close.
West De Pere likes to put the ball in the hands of Greisen, a South Dakota commit who has three receivers with more than 500 yards.
The list is highlighted by senior Judeah Kniskern, who has 68 catches for 1,140 yards and 17 TDs.
The junior duo of Landon Kibbe (34 receptions, 569 yards, 9 TDs) and Darian Acevedo-Ortiz (39 catches, 543 yards, 4 TDs) also have had notable seasons, while Lutz has contributed 414 receiving yards along with his work in the rushing attack.
Notre Dame allowed only one quarterback to throw for more than 200 yards this season, and that came in a 77-32 blowout of Greenfield in the opening round of the playoffs when Luke O’Brien completed 17 of 31 passes for 244 yards.
The Tritons’ defense has 19 interceptions. Five players have two or more, led by four from junior linebacker Jonas Berndt.
The key for Notre Dame could be the play of a defensive line that might be as good as any West De Pere has faced this season.
It features several top players in juniors Joey Massey and University of Notre Dame commit Richie Flanigan along with the senior duo of Jack Warden and Collin Cormier.
They can put pressure on a quarterback, but can the Notre Dame defense overall come close to containing Greisen and his cast of receivers when the Phantoms aren’t running the ball?
“I mean, we’d be lying if we said it wasn’t a concern,” Rader said. “He’s obviously got tremendous stats. He’s a great athlete. He’s a good leader. He’s been doing it a long time. He has a bright future in front of him. Everybody knows that.
“With them, you can’t just focus on Patrick and the passing offense, because they can run the hell out of the ball as well. The guys up front do a really good job, and Lutz is a really good running back. You have to bring your ‘A’ game on all parts of defense.”
Notre Dame can’t look at any of the first 13 games and do much comparing to what it will face, even if some of the schemes were the same.
There is, after all, only one West De Pere attack.
“I think this is the best offense in the state,” Rader said. “I mean, they beat the defending D1 state champ Bay Port. We have played other similar styles of offense, but not the same results.
“That is what you’d expect in the state championship, is to play against the guys who have been doing the best job at their jobs.”
Green Bay Notre Dame’s rushing attack is just as difficult to contain
The Tritons don’t sling the ball around like the Phantoms.
They have attempted 85 passes this season, and even the few times they have gotten down in a game, they don’t go away from the bread and butter of the run.
Which is a bit easier when you have their offensive line and an all-world running back like Allen.
Allen is having one of the best seasons in state history, rushing for 3,205 yards and a state-record 55 TDs.
There have been only two other instances of a running back topping the 3,000-yard mark, with Kenosha St. Joseph’s Adrian Davis going for 3,422 in 2001 and Notre Dame’s Christian Collins rushing for 3,084 in 2024.
No running back topped 50 TDs until Allen came along this season.
How ridiculous has he been? Consider his performance in the postseason.
He has rushed for 1,510 yards and 25 TDs. In four games.
Those yards alone are good enough to be among the top 35 running backs in the state for the entire season. The 25 TDs are among the top 20.
It’s simply not normal.
Perhaps even more impressive, just like every year, opponents know exactly what Notre Dame will attempt to do.
And almost every time, nobody can seem to stop it.
West De Pere allowed Homestead to rush 57 times for 237 yards in the semifinal, often chewing up minutes off the clock and keeping the Phantoms’ offense off the field as much as possible.
Notre Dame could do the same, although Allen is so explosive he sometimes ends drives rather quickly with a long run.
If the Tritons must contain Greisen to win, West De Pere must figure out a way to slow Allen to do the same.
“Number one, he’s super talented,” West De Pere coach Chris Greisen said. “I mean, just God-given talent. The other thing is his offensive line. Mike and I coached together many years ago, and Mike is a tremendous coach. Really does a great job with that offensive line, and you can tell. They are sound, fundamental. They get off the ball.
“He’s been running that offense since, well, he was a player there at Notre Dame. He’s done a great job, and they have a lot of talent. Not only from Kingston, but that offensive line and their fullback, Jack Whitehouse, is a tremendous athlete as well. He does a great job of mixing things up.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: West De Pere, Notre Dame to meet in unprecedented state title showdown
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