MADISON (NBC 26) — West De Pere is bringing home another gold ball.
The Phantoms took down Notre Dame Academy, 28-14, in the WIAA Division 2 state football championship Friday afternoon to claim their third title in program history. The other championships came in 2010 and 2011.
"This means a lot, this is a lot of hard work paying off," said Phantoms quarterback Patrick Greisen. "We did our job and it's not just one person, there's a lot of people on our team that can make plays.
Greisen threw for 304 yards in the win, a new D2 state championship record. He told NBC 26 earlier this week he wanted to bring home a title for his dad, head coach Chris Greisen and he did just that.
"That was everything," Patrick said of the embrace with his dad after the game. "This is for him."
However, it was the defense that stood tall, holding Notre Dame to zero points in the second half and had multiple stops when the Tritons went for it on fourth down in West De Pere territory. Maybe the biggest play of the game came near the end of the first half when Tritons star running back Kingston Allen took a direct snap on 4th and goal from the 3-yard-line, but he was stuffed just short of the end zone. Notre Dame would never get that close to paydirt again.
"We just gave 'em a bunch of stunts — nobody has ever seen them with the stunts and them firing off low, they can't change their direction and it just opened up alleys for us (linebackers)," said junior linebacker Braylon Stegall, who ended the day with 8 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss and a forced fumble. "Shout out the d-line for keeping (their) o-line off of us and giving me the opportunity to shoot them gaps.
For Notre Dame, the loss snapped a 27-game winning streak and prevented the Tritons from winning their second straight state championship. NDA won the Division 3 title last year and this year was bumped up to Division 2 this year due to the WIAA's new competitive balance plan.
Tritons star running back Kingston Allen, who shattered the state's single-season touchdown record this season, left the game in the fourth quarter with an apparent injury. NDA was trailing 21-14 at the time. He ended the day with a D2 state record 43 carries for 231 yards and 2 touchdowns. He now holds the Wisconsin single season rushing yards record with 3,436!
