Arrowhead starting to look familiar
First let’s congratulate Milwaukee Riverside, Shorewood/Messmer, New Berlin Eisenhower and Milwaukee Reagan.
Each of those teams wrapped up a share of its division title and assured itself a spot in the conference championship game.
And they did it with one week to spare, a luxury that will afford them a chance to recharge or fine tune aspects of their play for the playoffs.
Here are five takeaways from Week 7.
Don’t panic
That’s the lesson we should take from Arrowhead’s late-season surge. It had to make folks out in Lake Country nervous when the team started 0-3, but as the season continues and schedules start to even out, it has become clear that the Warhawks’ slow start wasn’t as big of a deal as it may have seemed.
Their first three opponents — Marquette, Muskego and Catholic Memorial — have lost one game among them. Since then Arrowhead has won four straight, over Kettle Moraine in Week 4 and Waukesha West, 33-15, on Friday, to re-establish itself as a top team in the Classic 8. A victory at Mukwonago on Friday will all but assure the Warhawks a third-place finish.
Now back to Friday. Arrowhead snapped West’s five-game winning streak with relative ease, jumping out to a 13-0 lead at the half and a 19-point advantage early in the fourth quarter. Junior running back Josh Nielsen (20 carries, 167 yards) and senior quarterback Nic Wohlfiel (18 for 156) had big days running the ball.
Homestead still on a roll
The schedule is playing out for the Highlanders as we thought. Their toughest opponents will come in Week 8 at Hartford, the third-place team in the North Shore, followed by a visit from second-place Slinger in Week. 9.
In the meantime, you have to appreciate how Homestead has dismantled opponents. Friday’s 42-10 victory over Cedarburg marked the fifth time in North Shore play Homestead has played with a running clock, which happens after a team leads by 35 points. Four times Homestead has had the running clock for the entire second half.
Grafton misses opportunity
Grafton was oh-so-close. The Black Hawks are one victory away from clinching their first playoff berth since 1997. By now, you probably know the team couldn’t hang on to a 20-7 firsthalf lead against Hartford and lost, 2820, at home.
Sustaining strong starts is one of the challenges a smaller school faces when matched up with a larger one of comparable talent. The team from the smaller school usually has the smaller roster and eventually wears down. That is one reason enrollment is such a big factor in football.
According to the WIAA website, Hartford has an enrollment of 1,334. Grafton’s is 745.
The loss is just another reminder of why the school’s proposed move to the Woodland East in the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association’s football-only conference realignment plan makes sense.
The team closes the season with Slinger (6-1) and Port Washington (4-3).
Marquette’s running game special
Marquette senior Daeleon BrownWilliams ran 43 times for 210 yards and two touchdowns in the Hilltoppers’ 2014 victory at Germantown on Friday. The performance pushed Brown-Williams’ season total to 1,121 yards with an average of 5.8 per carry and 13 touchdowns.
The play of Brown-Williams and the offensive line has provided balance to an attack that was pass-heavy in recent years.
It’s not a stretch to say this is the best Marquette has run the ball since the 2009 state championship season, when Brock LaFace and John LoCoco each had 1,000-yard seasons and averaged 7 yards per carry.
Greenfield-Whitnall rivalry
This matchup doesn’t get as much attention as other top rivalries in the area, but these are cross-community rivals who play in the same league. And usually they play close games. Take away a 31-13 Greenfield win in 2016 and the average margin of victory the past five seasons has been five points.
On Friday, Greenfield got touchdown passes from Chris Lopez to Skylar GillHoward and Elijah Rosario to Joel Santa Maria in the fourth quarter to score a 1916 comeback victory.