Brian Roebke photo
Josiah Coussons made a great block during Friday’s Wrightstown football game at New London, allowing Mason Driscoll to score on a 35-yard pick six.
By Brian Roebke
Editor
NEW LONDON — After a tough loss to Freedom that cost Wrightstown a share of the North Eastern Conference championship on Oct. 4, The Tigers shut out New London 35-0 on Fridy night.
While outscoring Denmark and New London by a combined score of 71-7, the Tigers improved to 6-1 in the NEC and 8-1 overall heading into the WIAA playoffs.
The start of the game was a little concerning for Tiger Nation as they watched the Bulldogs take the opening kickoff 73 yards on 12 plays, but were stopped on fourth down by the Tigers defense at the four-yard line.
Wrightstown got a big 36-yard run on fourth-and-one on the next drive by Aiden Humphreys to get on the scoreboard.
New London continued to run the ball at Wrightstown on their second drive, turning the ball over at the 26-yard line after a 14-play, 54-yard drive.
Wrightstown then flew down the field, aided by a 33-yard pass from Trevor Vande Hey to Buntin, capped by a 17-yard run by Humphreys. Buntin’s kick made it 14-0.
Coach Steve Klister knew New London’s offense was “ground and pound” and they wore Wrightstown at the start of the game but getting a stop inside the 10-yard line in the first quarter was key.
“Then we were able to control the game from there,” he said.
New London’s longest drives after that were 35, -3, 13, and 14 yards until they went 69 yards on their last drive that ended with a fumble recovered by Bennett Stengel.
Riley Feldkamp acknowledged Wrightstown and trouble with New London’s offense early in the game.
“It was just heavy run and double teams up the middle and we were playing too far back, I think,” he said. “But we adjusted quickly at halftime and that helped us a lot.”
The Tigers scored on their third possession on one of the more thrilling moments in the game, was a 35-yard pick-six by Mason Driscoll to give Wrightstown a 21-0 lead after Daniel Buntin’s extra point.
“We were in a man-to-man and I had the guy out of the backfield so I just stayed patient and I watched the quarterback’s eye and he threw it right to me,” Driscoll said.
Driscoll meandered through the New London defense to get to the end zone.
“A huge thank you to Josiah Coussons for hustling down and giving me a block to get me into the end zone,” he added.
Later in the second half, he had another pick at the same spot on the field.
“I could kind of tell they were going to do something because they were down by a lot and it was pretty obvious from the formation and they just threw it right to me,” he said.
Wrightstown received the kickoff to start the third quarter and scored on a 21-yard Humphreys run, thanks to a 37-yard pass from Vande Hey to Jaeden Kittoe in the middle of the field.
After Driscoll’s second pickoff, Humphreys scored his fourth and final touchdown on a 16-yard run. Buntin’s extra point then started the running clock.
“They’ve got a nice team,” said Klister of the Bulldogs, who finished the season with a 2-7 record. “They’re well coached and they kind of put things together at the end of the year but obviously they had to play to get in the playoffs here and we were able to shut them out.”
Humphreys, who finished the regular season with 990 yards, led the Tigers with 116 yards on just nine carries. If that wasn’t enough, he led the team with 17 tackles, with eight of them solo.
“Props go to the O-line,” he said. “I had everybody blocking for me and props goes to them. They made everything possible for me to run through.”
He also credited blocking backs Kaden Colwell and Daniel Buntin along with Braeden Novitske and the rest of the line.
“The nice thing is those guys really don’t look at their individual stats,” Klister said. “They’re all team guys and that’s what we need going forward because we’re going to have to play well as a team and hope to get a couple home games.”
Bennett Hermann has been a menace on Wrightstown’s defensive line this season, pressuring the opposing quarterbacks all season long, reportedly leading the conference in sacks.
This all despite a lack of a prototypical body for a defensive lineman.
“The practice definitely helps me and the guys last year too,” he said. “They really helped with getting prepped before the game.”
Hermann thinks he’s always been undersized whether it be basketball or football and he feels like that’s helped him to adapt to his surroundings.
Despite his lack of brawn, he repeatedly gets intro the offensive backfield.
“I really don’t know how I do that,” he said. “Josiah was talking to me about, saying, ‘how do you fly around that field the whole time,’ and I said that’s what I’ve been doing my entire life,” he said.
Members of the team lobbied to wear all-white jerseys for the past couple weeks and Klister finally went for it, but he had reservations because of the history of his teams wearing that color combination.
“Two games we wore them before and we didn’t play so well, let’s put it that way,” he said. “They convinced me and I said this is a one-and-done and we’re not going to talk about it over the playoffs but they played well and I don’t care for the look but they wanted to try it.” Klister set some incentives against Denmark that the team came close to meeting but late in his coaching career, he’s a little more flexible.
Feldkamp thinks the team is looking solid going into the playoffs after two straight blowout wins.
“The Freedom game held us to ground level,” he said. “We’re not above anyone else, we’re just a normal football team, and I think that’s going to help us stay together and one game at a time through the playoffs.
Humphreys also likes where the team is standing at the end of the regular season.
“We definitely need to start off a little faster but once we kind of get rolling, I think we’re alright,” he said. “We’ve got to keep our nose to the grindstone and keep coming in every day thinking it’s our last game.”
Hermann thinks the Tigers are on a good stretch right now. “35-0, here, it’s very good momentum,” he said.
Driscoll is also ready for the playoffs.
“I think we’re doing great and ended the regular season with a big win going into the playoffs hot,” he said.
Next game: vs. Sturgeon Bay
The Tigers head into the playoffs for the 30th consecutive season with a No. 1 seed in Division 5 and host Sturgeon Bay on Friday night.
The Clippers, who finished with a 3-4 record in the Packerland Conference, 3-6 overall, are coming off four straight losses including a 48-20 defeat at Bonduel.
Sturgeon Bay won a state championship in 2004 and produced future NFL players linebacker Nick Greisen, quarterback Chris Greisen and offensive lineman Casey Rabach but has had limited success since then, even moving to eight-man football in 2019. Soccer is king in Sturgeon Bay, winning state titles in 2015 and 2019.
They returned to 11-man football in 2022 and made the playoffs the past two seasons, ending the 2023 campaign in Wrightstown with a 29-12 loss.