NEW LISBON - Tonight the New Lisbon Rockets took on the Bangor Cardinals for the top spot in the Scenic Bluffs Conference at York Field in New Lisbon. 

It was a playoff-type atmosphere and both teams were buzzing with emotion. To add to the situation it was raining lightly before kickoff and the field was becoming rather slick. 

Bangor won the coin toss and elected to receive; the Cardinals started their drive with seven straight run plays which chewed up yardage, bringing them down to the Rocket 18 yard line. 

On the eighth play of the drive Cardinal quarterback Kyle Wright lofted an 18-yard pass to Jason Burkhardt for the first points of the game. The two point conversion was successful and the Cardinals led 8-0 at the 6:21 mark of the first quarter. 

After a short Rocket punt the Cardinals took over with a short field and capped off the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run by John Piske, giving the Cardinals a 14-0 lead.

The next New Lisbon possession ended in another fantastic punt pushing Bangor back deep into their own territory. 

The Cardinal drive stalled around midfield and they faced a 4^th and 2.  However an offside penalty by the Rockets Jared Rabuck kept the drive alive and on the next play the Rockets paid for it.

Quarterback Wright threw another touchdown pass to Adam Wuensch to make the score 20-0 in favor of Bangor. 

After another Rocket punt, and another Cardinal touchdown, this time a 14-yard run by Ethan Anderson, made the score 26-0.

During the next series sophomore quarterback Matthew Spaniol replaced Cobretti Forsythe under center. 

Forsythe left the game with an unidentified calf injury. 

On third and 12 from deep in Rocket territory, Spaniol threw a nice pass to halfback Cory Kalmerton for a first down.  However offsetting penalties by both teams negated the gain of 15 yards. 

After a failed “Cal-Stanford” play the teams went into the half and Bangor held the lead, 26-0.

New Lisbon got the ball to start the second half, and on the fourth play of the drive Edgren broke through the line and rumbled 65-yards for the Rockets first points of the night. 

After a failed two-point conversion the lead was trimmed to 26-6.

On the next drive, the Rocket defense stopped the Cardinals near midfield, but an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty aided the drive which was capped by a 10-yard scamper by Steve Peters to stretch the Cardinal lead to 34-6.

Another punt by the Rockets gave Bangor excellent field position but the drive quickly ended with a fumble recovered by New Lisbon’s Chad Wyss. 

Spaniol directed the Rockets down the field but an interception in the endzone ended the threat, and all but ended the game.

A 35-yard touchdown romp by Peters stretched the score to 42-6 with 1:24 left in the game.

Another New Lisbon threat ended when Cory Kalmerton fumbled on the two yard line to give Bangor the final possession of the night.  The Cardinals mercifully ran out the clock to end the game with a 42-6 victory.

New Lisbon head coach Brad Bever said the first thing his team needs to do is “get healthy.”

“The kids fought hard but we made some mental errors that they (Bangor) capitalized on.”


BANGOR……     14  12  16  0  -  42

NEW LISBON…    0   0    6  0  -   6

Scoring, First Quarter BAN: Jason Burkhardt 18 pass from Kyle Wright, 6:31 (John Piske 2 pt. conversion), Piske 2 run, :16.  Second Quarter BAN: Adam Wuensch 47 pass from Wright, 6:42, Ethan Anderson 14 run, 1:11.  Third Quarter NL: Anthony Edgren 65 run, 11:14. BAN: Peters 4 run, 8:44 (Shawn Setzer 2 pt. conversion), Peters run 35, 1:24 (Peters 2 pt. conversion).  Total Yards:  BAN 278, NL 150.

The WIAA football playoff field is expected to be announced by early morning Friday with the pairings, brackets and sites expected by early afternoon.

Round one playoff games will be played at 7 p.m. Tuesday night.

- Riley Murphy is a sophomore at New Lisbon High School. Murphy is in Jim Giebel's English class. Murphy is a walking encyclopedia of sports knowledge and has a strong desire to follow a career in sports reporting. This is his first article published at Preps On The Net.