By Dan Truttschel Sports Correspondent
Through almost two quarters Friday night, it seemed like the Wilmot football team was on the right path with visiting Waterford in the Southern Lakes Conference opener for both squads.
From there, however, a couple key miscues hurt the Panthers – and they never could recover.
Waterford recovered a fumble just before halftime and turned that into a touchdown en route to a 28-13 victory. The loss dropped the Panthers to 0-2 overall and 0-1 in the SLC, while Waterford improved to 1-1 overall and 1-0 in conference play.
The difference between a victory and a loss was slight, Wilmot coach Mike Greinke said.
“We played a lot better than we did against Notre Dame (last week),” he said. “We definitely had a better energy level and the effort was much better
“Obviously, execution on offense wasn’t terrific. We made a lot of mistakes.”
The Panthers were also hurt by several missed tackles at inopportune times, Greinke said.
“Defensively, I thought we played pretty well other than tackling,” he said. “There were plays when we tackled great, but the key plays for them, we didn’t swarm to the ball.”
Wilmot trailed 8-0 when quarterback Noah Strasser hit Bennett Kothe with a screen pass that turned into a 72-yard touchdown play with 6:51 left in the opening half and cut the deficit to just two points.
With just 30 seconds left before the intermission, the Panthers fumbled, however, and two plays later, the Wolverines hit pay dirt.
Waterford quarterback Ryan Danbrea connected on a 22-yard scoring strike with Justin Steffens to build the Wolverines’ lead to nine points at 15-6.
But the Panthers refused to go away.
At the 6:39 mark of the third quarter, Strasser and Matt Christensen connected on a 5-yard slant pass into the end zone to again cut the deficit to two points at 15-13.
The turning point of the game came a short time later, when it looked like the Panthers had Waterford stopped on fourth down. But on the punt, Wilmot was called for a holding penalty, which gave Waterford a fresh set of downs.
The Wolverines capitalized, as they capped a 13-play, 65-yard scoring drive with a 5-yard touchdown by Alex Tomaschek to put the game out of reach.
That sequence was tough to swallow, Greinke said.
“There were a lot of things that a lot of (officiating) crews wouldn’t have called really changed the complexion of the game,” he said. “I know the crew has to call what they see, but there some things that seemed ridiculous and were game changing in certain spots.”
Waterford iced the win with a 7-minute drive and a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
For the game, Wilmot had six first downs, 151 yards passing and just 14 yards rushing. The Panthers were penalized seven times for 55 yards.
Strasser completed 11 of 25 passes for 147 yards. Kothe had three receptions for 82 yards, followed by Stephen Zeczkowski with three catches for 28 yards, Erik Nevoso with three catches for 25 yards and Christensen with two catches for 12 yards.
Waterford focused its defensive energies on stopping Christensen, which is a strategy the Panthers will see all season, Greinke said.
“Any time you play (Waterford coach Adam) Bakken, you’re going to be going up against a guy who knows his defense,” Greinke said. “He knows what he needs to do, and he has to the talent at Waterford to do it.”
Wilmot looks to get its first win of 2012 this Friday night when it travels to Elkhorn for a 7 p.m. SLC matchup. The Elks won their first game of the season last week with a 30-13 rout of Delavan-Darien.
Elkhorn was led by running back Kyle Mountford, who rushed for 159 yards and three touchdowns.
Wilmot has to focus on the task at hand all week, Greinke said.
“Their talent is definitely a step up from last year,” he said. “For our kids, when you’re 0-2, you can’t take any one lightly. … My challenge is tell (the team), ‘This team is talented, this team is going to play up for you, and (coach) Tom Lee gets them going.’
“I’m concerned, and our boys have to step up to the challenge if they want to get their first win.”