Papendorf tosses five touchdowns, runs for another as Fox Valley Lutheran football blows out Two Rivers

By Paul Lecker
AppletonSportsPage.com

APPLETON – Lucas Papendorf had not played much quarterback in the past year, but put back in the starting spot for the Fox Valley Lutheran football team to start the 2024 season, he could not have done much better than he did.

Papendorf saw some action as a sophomore, throwing for four touchdowns, but attempted just two passes a year ago as Liam Heiges lit up the scoreboard for the Foxes. In his first start in 2024, Papendorf completed 20 of 28 passes for 335 yards and five touchdowns to lead Fox Valley Lutheran to a dominating 38-7 win over Two Rivers on Friday night at Fox Valley Lutheran High School.

Fellow senior David Schumacher was the main target for Papendorf as he hauled in nine passes for 133 yards and two touchdowns.

Graham Feidt, Jacoby Dobberstein and Blessings Kapande hauled in TD passes as well as the Foxes rolled.

“Lucas, he has some experience when Heiges went down as a sophomore, so we knew coming into the season he had a lot of confidence and that background to come in,” FVL coach Seth Jaeger said. “You have to give credit to our receiving crew too. We were down one of our key guys and the next guy stepped up, and that was huge for us.”

FVL scored on six of its first seven possessions, including the first one of the year, as Papendorf overcame a penalty and a sack to hit Schumacher for a 19-yard touchdown with 4:41 to go in the first quarter.

Papendorf’s lone blemish came on the first play of the Foxes’ second possession when he was picked off by Dayton Glandt. From there on, FVL’s passing game was unstoppable.

Schumacher hauled in a 6-yard touchdown six plays into the second quarter and the Foxes went 73 yards in 12 plays on their next drive, which culminated with a 2-yard TD run by Papendorf.

Two Rivers scored with 7 seconds to go before halftime on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Noah Shillcox to Max Matthias and the Foxes led 19-7 at the break.

Papendorf was on task in the third quarter, completing 10 of 15 for 156 yards and three scores – an 11-yarder to Feidt, a 56-yard bomb to Dobberstein, and a 7-yard swing pass to Kapande, the Foxes’ running back, who also rushed for a team-high 53 yards.

With the move into Bay Conference this season, Jaeger is expecting the Foxes to be competitive, especially coming off a big win in the opener.

“The teams that we face, they have a lot of two- and three-year starters, seniors now with a lot of experience, and a lot of our guys are new,” Jaeger said. “It’s going to be a competitive schedule. The Bay Conference gives us a different group of teams that we’re a little bit familiar with.”

Fox Valley Lutheran will play its final nonconference game at Denmark (0-1) on Friday, Aug. 30, before hosting crosstown-rival Xavier in its first Bay Conference game on Sept. 6.

Foxes 38, Raiders 7
Two Rivers   0   7   0   0   –   7
Fox Valley Lutheran   7   12   19   0   –   38
First Quarter
FVL – David Schumacher 19 pass from Lucas Papendorf (Gabe Heiges kick), 4:41.
Second Quarter
FVL – Schumacher 6 pass from Papendorf (kick missed), 8:47.
FVL – Papendorf 2 run (pass failed), 1:49.
TR – Max Matthias 20 pass from Noah Shillcox (Daniel Karlin kick), 0:07.
Third Quarter
FVL – Graham Feidt 11 pass from Papendorf (pass failed), 6:07.
FVL – Jacoby Dobberstein 56 pass from Papendorf (G. Heiges kick), 3:02.
FVL – Blessings Kapande 7 pass from Papendorf (kick missed), 0:38.
Team Statistics
First downs: TR 8; FVL 16.
Rushing (att-yards): TR 21-117; FVL 28-109.
Passing (comp-att-yards-int): TR 7-15-51-1; FVL 22-31-263-1.
Total yards: TR 168; FVL 375.
Fumbles (total-lost): TR 3-3; FVL 1-1.
Penalties (total-yards): TR 2-10; FVL 12-77.
Punting (no.-avg.): TR 2-27.0; FVL none.
Individual Statistics
Rushing: TR, Max Matthias 14-66, Joshua Lichterman 3-20, Derek Klinkner 4-17, Noah Shillcox 5-8, Christian Pyles 1-6. FVL, Blessings Kapande 13-53, Gabe Heiges 4-39, Liam Murphy 4-7, David Schumacher 2-7, Lucas Papendorf 5-3.
Passing: TR, Shillcox 7-15-51-1. FVL, Papendorf 20-28-335-1, G. Heiges 2-3-28-0.
Receiving: TR, Klinkner 4-16, Pyles 2-15, Matthias 1-20. FVL, Schumacher 9-133, Graham Feidt 6-79, Jacoby Dobberstein 2-93, Amanuel Dahlke 2-28, G. Heiges 2-23, Kapande 1-7.
Interceptions (defense): TR, Dayton Glandt. FVL, Schumacher.
Fumble recoveries (defense): TR, Ben Klein. FVL, Brady Nilson, Malik Schedler, Logan Parsons.
Records: Two Rivers 0-1; Fox Valley Lutheran 1-0.