HOLMEN — The disappointment was impossible to hide.
There were tears and hugs that no one playing for the Holmen High School football team was ready to give on Friday night.
The Vikings shared the MVC championship for the second straight season and worked hard for the No. 2 seed they were award for the WIAA Division 2 playoffs. They had a home field to defend and planned to defend it multiple times in order to extend their season.
But seventh-seeded Nicolet had other ideas for their first-round matchup at Empire Stadium.
The Knights (5-5) built some momentum with two wins to close out the regular season, but Friday’s 23-13 upset of the Vikings (8-2) allowed them to double their program postseason win total to two.
Holmen fumbled five times, lost two of them and couldn’t stop Nicolet from getting the big play when necessary.
“When you get opportunities, you have to take them, and we missed a couple tonight,” Holmen coach Travis Kowalski said. “That’s where you end up on the wrong side of the score.”
The Vikings never led, but the game was close until a tough stretch of the fourth quarter.
Holmen trailed 10-6 but was ready to take possession after a bad snap and penalty pushed Nicolet back to its own 5-yard line, where it faced third-and-28. Instead of throwing the ball down the field, the Knights opted to run and get what they could,
Junior running back Conner McKenna took the ball from quarterback Nicholas Bongard, cut to his left and found a running lane toward the sideline. He turned up the field and gained 34 yards for a first down to keep the drive alive.
Instead of returning a punt, the Holmen defense was on its heels. Three plays after McKenna’s first down, Bongard lofted a high pass toward Carter Zuithoff near the left sideline.
Both Jack Barth and Jakai Ayed were there to defend, but the 6-foot-6 Zuithoff pulled the pass down around the Holmen 20 and raced to the end zone as Barth and Ayed fell to the ground.
That gave the Knights a 17-6 lead with 5 minutes, 56 seconds left and put the Vikings in the difficult spot of having to score twice.
“That play was huge,” Kowalski said. “That’s a play that was there for us to make, and we didn’t do it.”
Holmen was stopped on fourth down on its next possession, and Nicolet needed just two plays to punch the ball in from the 18 for a 23-6 lead just 2:08 after its previous score.
The Vikings finished the game with a 60-yard touchdown drive that resulted in a 9-yard scoring run for senior AJ Alesch, but the ensuing onside kick didn’t work.
Senior quarterback Colin Williams gave the Vikings their first touchdown on a 2-yard run.
That was in response to Nicolet’s first touchdown, which was set up by a muffed punt. The Knights recovered the ball at the Holmen 5 and completed the short drive for the first score of the game.
The Knights finished the game with 253 total yards, but 143 of those came on three plays. McKenna had a 49-yard run in the third quarter before his 34-yarder in the fourth and Zuithoff’s 60-yard touchdown catch.
Senior Eli Kane rushed for a team-high 120 yards, and Barth added 67. Senior Alex Berget, who missed the regular season with an injury, played a little defense and quarterback in the second half on Friday.
Berget completed 3 of 7 passes for 20 yards and rushed for 17 yards on seven carries.
“That was amazing,” Kowalski said of getting Berget on the field. “He’s a class act, great kid, great athlete, and to get him back out there in the last game is pretty impressive after he was hurt. I’m proud of him and all of these guys.”
Division 5
Winnebago Lutheran Academy 42, Arcadia 26
FOND DU LAC — The fourth-seeded Vikings (7-3) ousted the fifth-seeded Raiders (7-3) and stopped their four-game winning streak.
Division 6
Darlington 55, Melrose-Mindoro 14
DARLINGTON — The eighth-seeded Mustangs (5-5) had a tough time hanging with the top-seeded Redbirds (10-0).
Junior Isaiah Kleinsmith scored both of Melrose-Mindoro’s touchdowns, and quarterback Brady Blaken added a two-point conversion run.
Kleinsmith’s touchdowns were his 10th and 11th of the season.
