Xavier football rallies to top Wrightstown
By Paul Lecker
AppletonSportsPage.com
APPLETON – Wrightstown’s fourth long drive of the game resulted in its third touchdown and a six-point lead midway through the third quarter of the Bay Conference-North Eastern Conference football crossover game against Xavier on Friday night.
With their backs against the wall, the Hawks responded in a big way.
Xavier scored on each of its final four drives of the game, held the Tigers scoreless, and pulled away for a 37-20 victory at Rocky Bleier Field at Xavier High School.
Xavier quarterback Reid Hietpas scored on a leap over the goal line on fourth down at the 1 to give the Hawks its first lead at 21-20 with 1:24 to go in the third quarter and that was just the start.
The Hawks scored on all three of their drives in the fourth quarter, forced two three-and-outs from Wrightstown and ended up with a comfortable double-digit victory.
“They had a lot of players going both ways (offense and defense) and we thought we could wear them out,” Xavier coach Dave Hinkens said. “We tried to play a faster pace. We both want to run the ball, but we wanted to do it faster. We thought we could get them later in the game. We thought the later in the game that it was, the better it would be for us. It kind of played out that way.”
Following Hieptas’ score, Xavier popped up a surprise onside kick to the right that it recovered. The ensuing drive ended with a 37-yard field goal by A.J. Seidler four plays into the fourth quarter, and Isaiah Des Jardins later scored on TD runs of 22 and 6 yards to finish off the win for Xavier (3-1, 2-0 Bay Conference).
“I have an incredible special teams coach and he asked if I was comfortable with it, and I said absolutely,” Hinkens said of the onside kick. “Our kids know our mindset. We’re aggressive. It was a huge point in this game because we got the ball back and scored.”
The teams traded touchdown drives in the first half. After a long drive ended in a missed field goal for Xavier on the opening possession, Wrightstown got on the board on a 23-yard touchdown pass from Trevor Vande Hey to Jaden Kittoe.
Xavier needed just one play to even things up. After a 70-yard kick return by Des Jardins was nullified by a penalty, Matthew Potter raced 70 yards for a touchdown to knot the score at 7-7.
Wrightstown raced down the field again and scored on a 35-yard run by Trevor Vande Hey.
Following a three-and-out by Xavier, its only one of the game, the Tigers looked poised to increase their lead, but an interception by Luke Wolske, and a 46-yard return set up the Hawks at the 14. Two plays later, Potter raced in from the 13 to tie the game again at 14-14.
A 58-yard kickoff return by Eli Lemke put the Tigers on the other side of midfield. Eleven plays later, Wrightstown was knocking on the door of the end zone, but without any timeouts left, it had to hurry. A pair of runs up the middle from the 1 fell short and time ran out before the Tigers could get off a fourth-down try, leaving the score tied at halftime.
“We said all week that this is going to be grown-man football, two teams with the same mindset on what they want to do,” Hinkens said. “They beat us in the first half. I felt fortunate it was 14-14. They won the half but didn’t win the score. We had that stop at the goal line, the interception, so we were fortunate to be tied. I really thought at half that we were going to win the second half, and we did.”
Xavier finished with 363 total yards, 272 on the ground on just 39 carries. Potter led the way with 130 yards on 15 carries. Hietpas ended up with 65 and Des Jardins added 53 more for the Hawks.
Payton Vande Hey led Wrightstown (3-1, 1-1 North Eastern Conference) with 138 yards rushing and a touchdown on 23 carries.
Xavier hosts Seymour (1-3, 1-1 Bay Conference) next Friday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m. Wrightstown will be at home against Freedom (2-2, 0-2 North Eastern Conference).
Click here to view the Bay Conference and North Eastern Conference football standings and scoreboard
Hawks 37, Tigers 20
Wrightstown 7 7 6 0 – 20
Xavier 7 7 7 16 – 37
First Quarter
W – Jaden Kittoe 23 pass from Trevor Vande Hey (Daniel Buntin kick), 2:55.
X – Matthew Potter 70 run (A.J. Seidler kick), 2:30.
Second Quarter
W – T. Vande Hey 35 run (Buntin kick), 11:53.
X – Potter 13 run (Seidler kick), 5:16.
Third Quarter
W – Payton Vande Hey 8 run (kick missed), 5:42.
X – Reid Hietpas 1 run (Seidler kick), 1:24.
Fourth Quarter
X – Seidler 37 field goal, 11:38.
X – Isaiah Des Jardins (Seidler kick), 9:19.
X – Des Jardins 6 run (kick blocked), 2:10.
Team Statistics
First downs: Wrightstown 15; Xavier 10.
Rushing (att-yards): W 48-200; X 39-279.
Passing (comp-att-yards-int): W 5-11-91-1; X 4-8-84-0.
Total yards: W 291; X 363.
Penalties (no.-yards): W 3-15; X 7-60.
Fumbles (total-lost): W 0-0; X 1-0.
Punting (no.-avg.): W 2-23.0; X 1-41.0.
Individual Statistics
Rushing: W, Payton Vande Hey 23-138, Trevor Vande Hey 15-45, Landon Helphrey 5-10, Daniel Butin 5-8. X, Matthew Potter 15-130, Reid Hietpas 11-65, Isaiah Des Jardins 5-53, Carter McGlone 5-19, Evan McCormick 3-12.
Passing: W, T. Vande Hey 5-11-91-1. X, R. Hietpas 3-7-76-0, Potter 1-1-8-0.
Receiving: W, Kittoe 3-59, Quade Thompson 2-32. X, Tyler Brightman 1-42, Des Jardins 1-22, McCormick 1-8, Cole Hietpas 1-2.
Interceptions (defense): X, Luke Wolske.
Records: Xavier 3-1, 2-0 Bay Conference; Wrightstown 3-1, 1-1 North Eastern Conference.