Pirates win easily at Alma Center, clinch CWWC title share

GILMAN 49, ALMA CENTER LINCOLN 0

Recent results suggested Alma Center Lincoln might be able to move the football with its short passing game, and the Hornets did at times Friday, but those results also suggested the Gilman Pirates should be able to score points and they did plenty of that early in a 49-0 win.

The victory, coupled with McDonell Central’s last-minute 46-44 loss at Phillips, clinched at least a share of the Central Wisconsin West championship for the Pirates, who will try to secure the title all for themselves when they visit McDonell Friday night.

While the game will no longer be the season-ending battle of unbeatens that it appeared it might be, there is still plenty riding on it. The Macks (3-1, 6-1) will be looking to force a three-way tie for the conference championship between themselves, Gilman and Phillips. Gilman (4-0, 7-0) will be looking to solidify its WIAA playoff positioning along with securing the outright title.

“This will carry a lot of weight going into what happens after the game Friday night when they determine the seeding,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “This game will determine a lot. Where you finish in your conference and whether you’re undefeated or not will matter, and beating a team like Mc-Donell that has a good record will mat- ter. There’s a lot at stake yet.”

In the win over Lincoln, Gilman scored five first-quarter touchdowns to put it out of reach very early. Lincoln’s coaching staff requested that the running clock rule go into effect in the second quarter, when the Pirates scored their final 13 points.

While the points came easily, Rosemeyer said the Pirates weren’t exactly perfect in doing so.

“We were able to get some big plays out of things obviously, but we had some bad plays too, where we didn’t execute very well,” he said. “It was just that our big plays turned into touchdowns. We had a few plays where we got zero to 3 yards with just some simple little mistakes that we have to make sure we clean up against a good team that plays good defense otherwise we’re going to put ourselves into some bad situations.

“It’s hard to argue against it when you score 49 points in a half, but there were a few that stuck out.”

The game was Gilman’s first in two seasons of eight-player football on an 80yard field.

“The best way to put it is, it’s just different,” Rosemeyer said.

Troy Duellman returned the opening kickoff just shy of midfield, to the 39, the Hornets jumped offside before the first snap, then Duellman bounced a run to the left side and scored from 36 yards out to put the Pirates up 6-0 just 16 seconds into the game.

Lincoln got a 29-yard catch and run from left-handed freshman quarterback Jace Paul to Noah Dawley but its first drive eventually stalled at Gilman’s 30. Pirate quarterback Julian Krizan bootlegged to his left, broke through a couple of arm tackles and tight-roped the sidelines at the end for a 50-yard score on the first play of that possession.

Grady Kroeplin recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff at the 18-yard line and then ran for 12 yards to set up Duellman’s 6-yard score. Krizan’s two-point run made it 20-0 with three Pirate touchdowns on just four snaps.

Krizan hit a wide-open Branden Ustianowski on a corner route to the left for a 20-yard touchdown and Krizan hit him again on the same play from 15 yards out before the quarter ended.

“Both of them were just a little play action where the cornerback got sucked up and we were able to get behind him,” Rosemeyer said. “The long one to Bryson Keepers before the half was the same idea. Their speed and athleticism just allows them to run past the cornerback if he hesitates just for a bit and we could have a big play there.”

Wayne McAlpine’s 38-yard run set up his 3-yard score with 6:56 left in the second quarter. The long pass to Keepers Rosemeyer spoke of went for 37 yards as time was ticking away at the end of the half. Instinctively, Gilman went to spike the ball to stop the clock, but that was null and void in the running-clock situation. After a timeout, Grady Kroeplin scored from 14 yards out with eight seconds left.

“We got the long pass play to Bryson and we spiked the ball with however many seconds were left,” Rosemeyer said. “The referee looked at me said it’s a running clock, so spiking the ball doesn’t mean anything. We didn’t really plan on scoring but we thought as long as we spiked it, we might as well take a timeout. Whether we scored or not, it didn’t matter but we just ran a little trap and Grady went the distance.”

Duellman’s interception stopped a Hornet threat early in the third, while Gilman’s JV offensive unit came up empty on two red-zone opportunities in the second half.

Gilman finished with 325 yards of total offense, 208 of which came in the running game. Krizan was three for three for 72 yards. Kroeplin ran for 45 yards off a short fourth-quarter pass from Duellman. Duellman’s 60 rushing yards led Gilman, while Krizan had 54 yards in his three carries and Kroeplin had 51 yards on five carries.

Alma Center Lincoln finished with just 3 rushing yards, but Paul was 16 of 27 for 177 yards with Dawley leading the receivers with five catches for 88 yards.

“I thought we did a good job with their short passing game,” Rosemeyer said. “They were in spots where we pretty much knew they were going to throw the ball. We did have some missed tackles. Some better tackling would have been a good thing. But we were there where we needed to be. We just have to make tackles. Dawley had a good game for them. He made some big plays. He’s not real big, but he’s fast and caught the ball.”

The WIAA will determine the 16-team state tournament field after Friday’s games with play starting next weekend in four, four-team geographical sections.