South's running game stalls, until it counts

Hertrampf's sprint is a game-winner

Oshkosh - They tried running all day long and had less than nothing to show for it.

Until their last offensive play of the day, that is.

That's when quarterback Cory Knapp saw something . . . running back Ben Hertrampf saw something . . . and a sizable crowd at J.J. Keller Field at Titan Stadium saw something.

Hertrampf turned a simple draw play into a 36-yard touchdown run with 22 seconds remaining in the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Senior All-Star Classic small-school game, giving the South team a 14-7 victory over the North.

"I wasn't expecting a touchdown. Definitely not," said Hertrampf, a Fennimore High School graduate. "All we were hoping to do was set up our kicker for a game-winning field goal."

Hertrampf was just speaking from experience. Before he took the draw handoff in for the score, the South team had minus-2 rushing yards for the day.

South coach Michael Haynes of Pardeeville confirmed the go-for-the-kick strategy. He said quarterback Cory Knapp of St. Francis was given two options in the huddle before the winning play: draw to the right or draw to the left.

"It was a quarterback check. You call two plays in the huddle, and the quarterback makes the decision at the line," said another South quarterback, Burlington Catholic Central's Reese Hartlage, who accounted for the other South points with a 77-yard touchdown pass to St. Thomas More's Aaron Loferski with 7 minutes 20 seconds left in the second quarter.

"We saw that they (the North's defensive backs) were creeping up on us on first down, so we decided, let's chuck it up there and see who can get to it the fastest," said Hartlage, who quarterbacked Catholic Central to a state championship last fall. "All I had to do was throw it to the right spot."

The two scoring plays accounted for 113 yards of the South's total offense.

The rest of the game, the South gained only 96 more yards. Hertrampf's game-breaker gave the South its first and only rushing first down.

"That's one heck of a team over there," Haynes said, nodding toward the North team coached by Tom Chase of Weyauwega-Fremont. "They really put it to us.

"The only thing we had to go on was some good team speed. That's why you saw us running plays to the outside so much."

The South also exhibited some solid defense. Even though the South managed only 209 yards, its defense held the North to 191 yards and forced three turnovers.

Despite its best efforts, the South couldn't keep the North's standout player, quarterback Jared Abbrederis of Wautoma, bottled up forever. In the third quarter, Abbrederis bootlegged left, found an opening and weaved his way for a 61-yard touchdown run to tie the game, 7-7.

Abbrederis, who also led Wautoma to a state title last fall, led all rushers with 96 yards on 13 carries and completed two of five passes for nine yards with one interception. No other North player ran for more than 28 yards.

The North also hurt its cause with two interceptions, grabbed by Catholic Central's Max Vos and Evansville's Andrew Keister.

Keister made a diving pickoff of a Nate Martin pass that glanced off the hands of the North's Wade Schlichting (Baldwin-Woodville), giving the ball to the South at the North 43 with 1:36 remaining. Hertrampf broke free for the game-winner three plays later.

The South also had a scoring chance just before halftime, when Jake Espeseth of Clear Lake fumbled a Quinn Cohoon punt at the North 17 with 16 seconds left. But Hustisford's Austin Neu threw a first-down pass that was intercepted by Elmwood's Steven Pax at the goal line.

North 0 0 7 0 — 7

South 0 7 0 7 — 14

Second quarter
South — Aaron Loferski, 77 pass from Reese Hartlage (Quinn Cohoon kick), 7:20.

Third quarter
North — Jared Abbrederis, 61 run (Paul Iglar kick), 8:33.

Fourth quarter
South — Ben Hertrampf, 36 run (Cohoon kick), :22.

Team Statistics
Rushing — N: 42-156; S: 27-34. Passing: — N: 6-15-2 35 yards; S: 14-25-1 175 yards. First downs: N: 13 (11 rush, 1 pass, 1 penalty); S: 7 (1 rush, 6 pass). Punts: N: Iglar 7-37.8 average; S: Cohoon 8-35.3. Fumbles-lost: N: 1-1; S: 0-0. Penalties: N: 3-21; S: 3-15. Missed field goals: N: Iglar 40 yards; S: Cohoon 44, 39 yards.

Individual statistics
Rushing — N: Luke Gronning 9-28, Jordan Rahm 1-0, Abbrederis 13-96, Brandon Garcia 5-23, Zack Pomputis 4-2, Nate Martin 5-(minus-19), Jake Espeseth 1-2, Patrick Williams 3-23, Ryan Schalow 1-1. S: Patrick Banks 6-6, Tyler O’Kane 3-1, Reese Hartlage 5-(minus-15), Hertrampf 8-58, Austin Neu 2-(minus-1), Cory Knapp 2-(minus-18), Lee Vlasak 1-3.

Passing — N: Abbrederis 2-5-1 9 yards; Martin 4-10-1 26 yards. S: Knapp 10-16-0 68 yards; Hartlage 3-4-0 97 yards; Neu 1-3-1 10 yards.

Receiving — N: Espeseth 2-9, Tyler Bosshart 1-4, Wade Schlichting 2-19, Pomputis 1-3. S: Vlasak 2-15, Casey Goffinet 1-5, Samuel Livingston 4-29, Aaron Loferski 2-83, Derek Pieper 3-30, Wade Falkenthal 1-6, Patrick Banks 1-7.

Interceptions — N: Steven Pax. S: Max Vos, Andrew Keister.

Fumble recoveries — S: Nate Keeney.

Dazzling right down to the wire

Late pick keys triumph

Oshkosh - Sure, Darius Feaster showboated.

Who wouldn't be in a show-offy mood after making the play that saves your team's day in the state all-star football game?

That's exactly what Feaster accomplished in the closing seconds of the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association All-Star Classic large-school game Saturday night at UW-Oshkosh.

With his South team reeling and the clock winding down, Homestead's Feaster returned an interception 55 yards for a game-clinching touchdown in the South's 24-16 victory over the North.

Feaster saw the ball coming the second North quarterback Brock Jensen of Waupaca cocked his arm, trying to find Merrill's Zach Kubichek on a fourth-and-1 play from the South 48 with 22 seconds to play.

Feaster plucked the ball out of the air and raced downfield, untouched - until he stopped a few feet short of the goal line and stood still, crossing his arms, before crossing the goal line with 4 seconds left.

Feaster was called for taunting, forcing the South to kick off from the 25-yard line. Nine laterals later, the whistle blew and the South knew it had gotten away with one.

"Our defense played a phenomenal ballgame, start to finish. Solid the whole way," said Brookfield Central coach Doug Lange, the head coach of the South team. "How in the world could these kids have played any harder?"

The South couldn't have played much better, either, over the first three quarters. The South opened a 10-0 halftime lead, then made it 17-0 on its first possession of the third quarter when Racine Horlick quarterback Steve Morris connected with Racine Park receiver Chris Hicks for a 46-yard scoring strike.

"Me and Chris were talking about that all week long," said Morris, who completed eight of 16 passes for 129 yards. "At halftime, Chris came to me and said their cornerbacks were biting on the short route, so we told the coaches we wanted to go long and it worked out."

But the North, coached by Mauston's Mike Taake, proved it had plenty of mettle.

First, River Falls' Levi Johnson ran 49 yards to set up an 18-yard touchdown pass from Oshkosh North's Nathan Wara to Johnson in the third quarter.

Then, the North waited patiently as the South overplayed itself into more than a little trouble.

The South had three passes intercepted in the fourth quarter, including two thrown by Morris, with one of them returned 35 yards for a touchdown by Ashwaubenon's Mitch Klapper, making it 17-14 with 7:45 remaining.

"It wasn't the prettiest finish," Morris said. "That backside pressure they were throwing at us was a doozy."

Then, Arrowhead punter Jeff Budzien, who had given up a blocked punt in the first half, mishandled a snap in his own end zone with 1:15 to play. He picked up the ball and kicked it, but that's not allowed in the high school game. The result was a safety and a 17-16 score.

"I just mishandled it," said Budzien, who also made a 28-yard field goal in the first half. "It all happened so fast."

Budzien's free kick after the safety gave the North its final possession, resulting in Feaster's game-ending pickoff.

"They had run that same pass play three or four times before, and each time we got sucked in and didn't stay home on that side," Lange said. "So we talked about it on the sideline before that series, and this time they stayed home."

"The coaches told me to stay back and watch for the screen, and there it was," Feaster said. "The second I grabbed it I was thinking 'I'm taking this to the house.' "

Feaster's two interceptions were just a couple of the highlights produced by the South defense. Nick Hill of Milwaukee Washington recovered two fumbles, and Waunakee's Chris Severson blocked a field goal attempt by Lakeland's Brandon Kennedy and also delivered two key sacks.

North - 0 0 7 9 - 16 
South - 7 3 7 7 - 24 

First quarter
South - LaVell Hewlett 11 run (Jeff Budzien kick), 8:57.

Second quarter
South - Budzien 28 field goal, 4:09.

Third quarter
South - Chris Hicks 46 pass from Steve Morris (Budzien kick), 10:35.
North - Levi Johnson 18 pass from Nathan Wara (Brandon Kennedy kick).

Fourth quarter
North - Mitch Klapper 35 interception return (Kennedy kick), 7:45.
North - Safety, Budzien fumbled punt snap in end zone, 1:15.
South - Darius Feaster 55 interception return (Budzien kick), :04.

Team statistics
Rushing - N: 33-130, S: 38-108. Passing - N: 8-17-2 137 yards; S: 8-16-2 156 yards. Total yardage - N: 267, S: 264. First downs - N: 10, S: 19. Fumbles-lost - S: 4-2, N: 2-1. Penalties - N: 5-46, S: 5-48. Punts - N: Cole Zwiefelhofer 3-43.0, S: Budzien 3-26.3.

Individual statistics
Rushing - N: Derrick Lang 7-18, Jake Wilson 6-22, Wara 6-28, Johnson 4-40, Michael Solberg 2-10, Brock Jensen 8-12. S: Jack Fleming 6-(minus-23), LaVell Hewlett 14-78, Steve Morris 10-32, Brooks Braga 6-23, Connor Cosgrove 1-0, Bernie Tamsett 1-(minus-2).

Passing - N: Jensen 5-12-2 99 yards, Wara 3-5-0 38 yards; S: Fleming 1-5-1 27 yards; Morris 8-16-2 129 yards.

Receiving - N: Anthony Martin 2-20, Zach Kubichek 2-37, Ethan Nauman 1-21, Tyler Sierakowski 1-31, Johnson 1-18, Lang 1-10. S: Cosgrove 4-51, Ben Ericksen 1-5, Chris Hicks 3-73, Ethan Bachinski 1-27, JoJo Pregont 1-5.

Interceptions - N: Lucas Duppler 2, Klapper 1; S: Feaster 2.

Fumble recoveries - N: Seth Stanchik 1; S: Nicholas Hill 2.

Blocked kicks - N: Chris Vandervest; S: Chris Severson.