Clash of eight-player heavyweights set for Friday at Stanley

WIAA EIGHT-PLAYER SEMIFINALS

Ranked as the top two eight-player teams in the state all season long in the WisSports.net coaches poll, former Cloverwood Conference rivals Gilman and Newman Catholic will meet again Friday to determine who plays in the WIAA state championship game.

The teams last met in 2016 when Gilman snapped a long losing streak with a 21-0 home win. Neither team made the WIAA playoffs that fall and Newman went to eight-player football the following year and has since become a state power. Gilman has lost just once since making the switch last year.

That loss was to Belmont, 24-20, in last year’s season finale. Newman Catholic took care of Belmont 35-0 Saturday to reach this Friday’s state semifinal game with the Pirates to be played at Stanley-Boyd’s Oriole Parke at 7 p.m.

The winner meets either Luck (91) or Wabeno-Laona (10-0) in the state championship next Saturday at 1 p.m. at Wisconsin Rapids. That semifinal is being played in Medford Friday, also at 7 p.m.

“It’s like a dream come true almost,” Gilman senior center and defensive end Zack Marion said after Friday’s 53-8 Level 2 win over Prairie Farm. “It’s one more game and then state. It’s exciting.”

Newman Catholic won the Central Wisconsin East Conference championship this fall with one close game, a 21-12 win at Greenwood on Sept. 24, while Gilman went basically unchallenged in the Central Wisconsin West. Newman buried Greenwood 56-0 in a Level 1 playoff rematch, however.

Both have offenses that have been nearly impossible for opponents to stop.

Newman gets it done with the passing game more than the running game. Quarterback Conner Krach is a 6-foot junior, who has thrown for 2,014 yards, 34 touchdowns and just three interceptions, according to statistics posted by WisSports.net. He’s also averaged 13.5 yards per carry.

The Cardinals will often put four receivers into pass patterns to stress opposing defenses. However, their top deep threat, Jacob Pfiffner, a 5-10 senior wideout, was banged up in Saturday’s win over Belmont and is status is a question mark. It also has Gilman not knowing, to a certain extent, how the Cardinals will attack them.

Krach’s other athletic targets that include Eli Gustafson, a 6-1, 200-pound tight end, and Nathan Klement, who is a smaller target at 5-6. Pfiffner has 11 touchdowns, Gustafson has nine and Klement has seven.

Josh Klement will likely get the rush carries that Krach doesn’t take. He has 351 rushing yards and four scores. Thomas Bates, who was the team’s top back, was lost early in the year to a knee injury.

“We’re trying to make sure we’re shored up on our run defense pretty good,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “If (Pfiffner) is not playing then we need to be solid against the run. They do a lot of shifting and motion so we’re trying to keep things as basic as we can. We don’t want to have to run around with them and try to adjust to their shifts. Play your gap and don’t worry about their movement. Keep their receivers in front of us and always try to have leverage on the sides, so no one is getting outside of us.”

Gilman’s offensive machine that has scored 51 points per game this season will meet the toughest defense it has seen all year on Friday.

Newman Catholic has shut out its last four opponents and had pitched two more shutouts before this recent streak. The Cardinals have allowed just 42 points in nine on-field games with 22 coming in a 49-22 win over Wausau East on Sept. 10. Bruce got a late touchdown in a 48-8 season-opening loss.

It starts up front, where defensive ends Ben Hardesty, a 6-2, 190-pound junior, and Owen Sullivan, a 6-2, 190-pound junior, get upfield in a hurry. Josh Klement is the team’s leading tackler from his linebacker position and Gustafson lines up all over and could be in the secondary covering receivers, rushing the passer or filling gaps against the run.

“They’re very aggressive,” Rosemeyer said. “They’re similar to McDonell in that their defensive line goes hard and they play a man-to-man behind it. They’re not really big, but they’re big enough. They’re kind of lanky. They have some speed, not overly fast, but some speed and toughness there. It’s hard to tell who they’re going to match with who against us.

“They’re just an athletic team. They’re a good track school usually and it kind of shows.”

Gilman’s main offensive strength is simply its balance. When the Pirates are executing at a high level, which they’ve done even against the best teams they’ve faced like Phillips, McDonell and Prairie Farm, they’ve made plays and scored points on the ground and through the air.

“That’s just part of our athleticism, our ability to use different weapons,” Rosemeyer said. “We have three guys who can run it and two guys who can catch it pretty good, which makes us a little more difficult to defend. They’re all just good football players.”