Appleton West football comes up one point short, falling to Green Bay East in season opener
By Dustin Riese
For AppletonSportsPage.com
APPLETON – Wins have been tough to come by for the Appleton West football team over the past five seasons. However, with a move into a new conference, the Fox River Classic-North, new opponents and a new batch of inspired kids, it is almost as if this season sparked a new beginning for the program.
Despite trailing the Green Bay East Red Devils by 14 entering the fourth quarter, it was the Terrors who mounted a late-game comeback as a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown receptions by Bennett Nelson pulled the Terrors within 14-13 with just more than two minutes to play.
After what was a game filled with missed opportunities, West had a chance to erase all that with one kick only to have their extra point blocked. That was the difference as the Red Devils held off the Terrors 14-13 for the win on Friday night at the Happel Sports Complex at West High School.
“Our effort tonight was great,” Appleton West head coach Dom Thompson said. “I thought we could’ve started the game a little bit better, as we waited way too long to play up to our standards. We just made too many mistakes tonight and those mistakes caught up to us in the end.”
First-game jitters were evident as neither team could do much of anything in the first quarter. Both offenses picked up an interception in that quarter while an OC Garza run seemed to set things up well for the Terrors’ offense only to have another drive stall out. The lone points of the first quarter came from special teams as the speedster Quearay Woods found a lane on the far sideline and took a punt to the house for the 66-yard score to put East in front 6-0.
Those were the only points until the final minutes of the first half when the Red Devils capitalized off another stalled drive by West. Facing a third-and-long with less than five seconds to go, Green Bay East went for it all and flung a hail mary to the back of the end zone. With three players looking to make a play, it was Lakevion Gonnigan coming down with the ball as his 32-yard reception from Brant Craw put the Red Devils in front 12-0 before tacking on the two-point try to extend their lead to 14-0 at the half.
Similar to how things went throughout the first half, it was another sluggish quarter for both teams in the third, although the Terrors did come away with their third interception of the game to kill a drive inside the 2. It was that type of play from the defense that stood out and something Thompson is hoping his team can build off of.
“Our defense was phenomenal tonight,” he said. “We made plays, forced some turnovers and got the stops when we had to have them. Unfortunately, there were also some big plays that we allowed which put us in tough spots at times. We always talk about winning each down, and at times we did that. Now it is about building off this performance and putting our best foot forward each week.”
It took nearly three full quarters for the Terrors offense to show signs of life, and it was the ground game that got things going. Whether it was Charlie Blevins using his agility and power to make things happen, or the speed of Michael Aponte, West was finally moving the ball at a more consistent pace, but still had nothing to show for it.
Eventually their approach would pay off as Connor Navis hooked up with Nelson for the 34-yard gain to move the ball inside the 10 before finding him again for the first Terrors’ touchdown of 2024 and pulling West within 14-7.
With the defense forcing another three-and-out and pinning the Red Devils deep inside their own territory, it was Parrion Peace making something happen as he fielded a punt near midfield and returned it 30 yards to set the offense up again. Despite a costly penalty nullifying a Payton Weideman touchdown one play after the return, it was Nelson finding the end zone once again as his 10-yard TD pulled the Terrors within 14-13 and one extra point away from tying things up.
It was at this moment when the Terrors had a chance to go for it all and win it, but instead they saw their extra point attempt blocked as the Red Devils still held a 14-13 lead. That was the last time that West would touch the ball as Green Bay East managed to run out the clock on its final possession to secure the victory.
“This is one of those games where you can look back on and honestly say we could’ve won this game,” Thompson said. “We didn’t start as fast as we needed to and we just made far too many mistakes to overcome. However, this is only Week 1 and we still have eight games to turn things around. We are just going to focus on ourselves and work on getting better each day.”
Appleton West will play its final nonconference game on Friday, Aug. 30, at Sheboygan South.
Red Devils 14, Appleton West 13
Green Bay East 6 8 0 0 – 14
Appleton West 0 0 0 13 – 13
First Quarter
GB – Quearay Woods 66 punt return (pass failed), 7:35.
Second Quarter
GB – Lakevion Gonnigan 32 pass from Brant Craw (pass successful) 0:00.
Fourth Quarter
AW – Bennett Nelson 10 pass from Connor Navis, (kick good), 4:18.
AW – Bennett Nelson 10 pass from Navis, (kick failed), 2:20.