Memorial can't slow down Pewaukee

It was a moment of reckoning for the Pewaukee football team with 7:19 to play Friday in the first round of the WIAA Division 3 football playoffs. A 35-17 lead had been whittled to 35-32, with a 64-yard touchdown pass from Catholic Memorial's Charlie Walsh tightening the screws.

The Pirates turned to the method that put them in that position. First-down give to Collin Sternad, 17 yards. Second down to Austin Kaatz, 1 yard. Third down to David Girmscheid, 15 yards. Seven more for Sternad, six for Kaatz, a 14-yard catch by T.J. Watt…

When Sternad's 23-yard touchdown run put the game out of reach, the Pirates had emerged with a balanced and complete performance, topping the returning state finalist CMH, 42-32.

"The running backs coach really challenged them this week," Pewaukee coach Clay Iverson said. "They're a very good defense. Not every play is going to be 60 yards. We need to make the 2-yard gains into 3-yard gains and the 3-yard gains, 4-yard gains. Eventually those 4-yard gains become longer and longer. Our backs are only as good as the guys up front, but our backs fought for everything against a really good defense."

Kaatz, Girmscheid and Sternad (twice) all found the end zone, as did Ben Steker and Alec Henderson on gorgeous touchdown receptions in the first half. Pewaukee forced three turnovers in the second 24 minutes and took control after a back-and-forth first half gave the Pirates a tenuous 21-17 lead.

"We've got so many different people that are threats," Sternad said. "There's nobody to single out."

But a 35-17 lead, established by the 3:50 mark in the third quarter, almost wasn't enough. Walsh led a 14-play drive down the field and capped it with a touchdown run and 2-point conversion, then converted a 4th and 5 deep in his own territory with an 8-yard rush. One play later, his 64-yard bomb to Mitch Meindel was on the money, and the deficit was suddenly down to three points, 35-32.

"Thirty-two points, you should be able to win the game," Memorial coach Bill Young said. "I thought we'd perform much better defensively. Bottom line, they deserved the win. They outplayed us. They outplayed our defense."

Memorial couldn't stall the Pirates on the next sequence, and Pewaukee essentially put the game away on Sternad's run to the left pylon.

It was the second straight year the two teams had met in the opening round, and like last year's 14-13 CMH victory, the game looked more like a Level 2 or Level 3 contest than a playoff opener.

Catholic Memorial struck the first blow, when Justin Dentici intercepted Pewaukee quarterback Brock Bateman on the Pirates' 8-yard line and parlayed that into a field goal. The Crusaders answered two subsequent Pewaukee touchdowns with scores of their own, one by Walsh when his fake handoff had the entire defense biting the wrong way and one by Casey Townsend at the end of a 9-play, 80-yard drive.

But Steker made the catch of the night with 33 seconds to go, leaping above double coverage (and what became a declined pass interference call on CMH) and wrestling the ball from a CMH defender for a 33-yard touchdown pass from Bateman. The Crusaders were able to put together a field goal attempt before halftime that sailed wide.

Jordan Edgerson recovered a fumble on the first CMH series of the second half, and Truman Katula batted a pass that caromed off his facemask before he corralled the interception. Both turnovers led to touchdown drives. Steker's interception in the final 2 minutes terminated Memorial's last gasp after it had crossed into PHS territory with a 10-point deficit.

"They're a really good football team, obviously," Iverson said. "You start looking too much at them, things can get a little screwed up. We really tried to focus at what we're good at. We're not going to put in a whole bunch of new stuff or anything like that for them, because we've been successful the last seven games. You've got to give Memorial credit because when it was 35-17 ... they battled the whole time. I wasn't comfortable until we got that last first down."

Walsh ran for 143 yards and passed for 128 in the losing effort. Memorial finished the year 6-4.