We have finally made it to the end of the 2023 WIAA football regular season, and now the quest for the gold ball begins. 32 teams secured a spot and are officially in. Lets go through a preview of some good matchups, along with some potential upsets, and Darkhorse teams all in the Division 1 Level 1 Playoffs.
Key Matchups Of The Week(Close Games)
#3 Stevens Point Vs #6 Wausau West
#4 Neenah Vs #5 D.C. Everest
#3 Oak Creek Vs #6 Kenosha Indian Trail
#3 Middleton Vs #6 Madison Memorial
Darkhorse Teams
#5 Seed Fond Du Lac: The Cardinals are in the tough Fox Valley conference with the stacked teams that consist of the Kimberly Papermakers the reigning division 1 state champions, the Kaukauna Ghosts a one seed in division 2 this year, and Neenah a 4 seed in the division 1 playoffs this year. All of the matchups Fondy has had against these opponents were actually pretty good. They came really close to upsetting Kimberly only losing 22-21 to a go ahead 2 point conversion in the end, and defeated Kaukauna the following week for their only loss of the season 34-24. This team knows how to beat the good teams, and don’t let that 4-5 record fool you because the Cardinals have a few winnable games coming up with a first round matchup to Milwaukee Pulaski, and a potential matchup with Milwaukee Marshall or DePere in the second. Don’t be suprised if we see Fond Du Lac in the sectional semifinal this year because of that.
#3 Bay Port: The Pirates are coming off of a FRCC North Conference championship going undefeated in their conference play led by a stunning 42 rushing touchdowns as a team on the season led by their star QB Carter Kallies who is not just known for passing but their leading rusher as well. In the 2023 campaign Kallies rushed for 826 yards and 17 rushing td’s, yes that many. He also has a key supporting cast to his passing game with weapons of senior Blake Buchinger, and junior Sawyer Torp combining with 1,220 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns. The pirates look to make some noise in the playoffs with their dominant QB, and are one of my picks to potentially get to the sectional final in their region this year.
#4 Mukwonago: The team that made it to the division 1 state championship just a year ago now finds themselves in a lower spot in the playoffs this year. After losing a sensational player in running back Wynn Stang, the Indians knew they would have to cover some ground to get back to the big game during this 2023 season. The team continued to do just that by keeping their offense very run heavy and are lead by the new sensation in junior Mason Radobicky with 1,431 yards on the ground and 16 rushing td’s. This season has been full of ups and downs for this team as they lost to the best team in division 1 the Muskego warriors 31-21, and #1 in division 2 Kettle Moraine 24-6. Just recently they fell last friday to Waukesha West 27-9 as the Indians couldn’t get their offense going at all in the bad “windy rainstorm”, but also without star RB Mason Radobicky last weekend as well. Things haven’t come to easy for the Indians this season. This week Mukwonago hopes to keep their season alive by hosting one of their rivals in the classic 8 the 5 seeded Arrowhead. It is still a question to see if Radobicky plays this friday but would be very huge if he’s in the lineup. One win for Mukwonago can get this team rolling as we have seen before, and they beat Arrowhead earlier this season 28-14, so they hope to repeat that performance this week, and keep rolling on through the postseason.
The Powerhouse Teams
#1 Muskego: One of the best in division 1 the Warriors are spectacular running their “double wing offense” which consists of three big names of RB’s Jack Labisch(Junior), Ashton Krause(Senior), and Max Schneider(Senior). The “terrific trio” I call this group combines for 2,174 yards on the ground and can trick any offense anyway they can by switching it up with all three of those guys. The team had a pretty slow start to the season playing a really good Verona team which ended up with Gabe Walden of Muskego kicking a game winning field goal, and then the week after they took on Oak Creek which was a slow game on the offensive end only scoring 15 points and came up with a win only holding OC to 8 points, but after that they came and dominated all over the Classic 8 conference with the exception of the 8-7 loss to Kettle Moraine last Friday in the rain. The Warriors hope to be on top of Division 1 at Camp Randall November 17th and hoist another gold ball trophy for the first time since 2019.
#1 Hamilton: This team was full of surprises coming out of the gate for this 2023 season. This offense is led by Senior quarterback Tyler Hatcher, and I will tell you that Sussex Hamilton has arguably one of the best offenses in the state. I was at their matchup between one of their conference rivals Marquette which was a team coming into that game without letting any points off against their last four opponents, and then this powerhouse offence comes in and just absolutely dominates the really good Marquette defense. What makes this team special is the wide variety of options for Hatcher to throw to. They got guys like Nick Kihn who can read the deep ball very well, a red zone option with WR Andrew Eichmann who had 3 td’s that night against Marquette, and Blake Schauer can run some deep routes as well. This team is just so well rounded and stacked in their offensive game to the point where I think they are a favorite to win the division 1 state championship game. It was arguably the most exciting offense I have seen all year in the games I have called, and Hatcher just shows flashes of Aaron Rodgers in his prime throwing deep balls like its nothing.
#2 Kimberly: The reigning Division 1 champions are looking to defend their title for this 2023 season and have the ability to do so every year. This team is what you can call the “dynasty of high school football” in Wisconsin. The Papermakers finished the regular season 7-1 with a forfeit win to open the year, and their one and only loss came to the Kaukauna Ghosts two weeks ago in a really big upset game for them 14-13. Kimberly is led by QB senior Carter Pendleton who had a pretty good year just under a thousand passing yards and 16 passing td’s, but the run game has had their fair share as well as Gavin Tyson, and Marcus Doucette combining for 12 rushing td’s on the year. The Papermakers at times don’t look as hyped up as they really are in the regular season, but come playoff time it is super easy for them to go on a big run as long as everybody on offense and defense click together then these guys are still one of the top three state title favorites easily. Kimberly has won an insane 6 state titles in the last 10 years so it is safe to say they are still the best of the best to this day.
#2 Franklin: Coming into the postseason after a 9-0 finish to the 2023 regular season, the Sabers hope for a chance at yet another gold ball ever since they did that in 2021 with the leading core of former QB Myles Burkett who is now one of the Wisconsin Badgers QB’s, and also led by Reese Osgood who is now a wide receiver for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Something I really like about this Franklin team in 2023 is that they have a lot of similarities to that 2021 state title run roster. Let’s start off with quarterback Joey Kallay. Kallay significantly got better as the full time QB1 after a season of getting to know Lewis Browns offense taking over from an injured Boston Halloran a year ago, but Kallay during this season has taken over the roll extremely well as he shows his flashes of Myles Burkett all over again when he has some big deep ball plays in crucial situations of third and longs or a big energy spark for the team he delivers right away. He does this by having an extreme Wide Receiver room of Seniors Jacques Brooks, and Dylan Drajkowski who was a big time breakout player for the Sabers this year. These two reminded me of the duo of Reese Osgood and Keaton Arendt from the 2021 state run. Being able to make your QB’s job much easier by making the right plays getting open running the right routes is the key to success for what Brooks, and Drajkowski are doing for this years team. To add along senior RB Terrance Shelton has been a deadly threat on the ground for the Sabers with 923 rushing yards and 19 td’s and Shelton has been very experienced on this roster as he also played a crucial part to the sabers state run in 2021 being the second leading rusher on that team. Lastly this defense has just been absolutely tremendous with a core led by senior DB Manny Joseph, and Jace Miller on the D line pressuring the opposing QB’s easily. Lets see if the Sabers can repeat their 2021 run over to the 2023 playoffs starting this Friday vs Kenosha Bradford.
Let the games begin as we have a very exciting slate of matchups to the division 1 round one playoffs beginning this Friday!