To the casual football fan, an extra point might not seem like a big deal.
Don’t tell that to the Oconto Falls Panthers or coach Mark Jonas, however.
Isaiah Radart’s fourth extra point turned out to be the difference in the team’s 28-27 home win over Shiocton on Oct. 3 at ST Paper Stadium.
Not only did the win come in the team’s annual homecoming game, the Panthers also improved to 6-1 overall and 5-0 in Northwoods Conference play.
The Chiefs headed to Oconto Falls with a 1-6 record and a 1-4 mark in conference play but ended up giving the Panthers all they could handle.
“Give the extra point team an awful lot of credit, because we haven’t kicked once all year,” Jonas said. “We didn’t have a kicker and Isaiah’s like, ‘I can do it.’ He practiced all week, was 4-for-4 and won the game. That was pretty impressive.”
The Panthers’ first three drives resulted in touchdowns.
Ethan Hill capped the game’s first drive with a 2-yard run midway through the first quarter. After forcing a three-and-out on Shiocton’s first drive, Oconto Falls took a 14-0 lead on Nathaniel White’s 4-yard pass to Alec Krejcarek in the final minute of the quarter.
Shiocton cut the lead in half on its next drive on Kyle Bergsbaken’s 10-yard pass to Brett Singler with 8:31 remaining in the first half.
White and Krejcarek hooked up for a 54-yard scoring pass on the Panthers’ next drive, but the Chiefs answered with a touchdown pass of their own, as Bergsbaken hit Braylon Krull for a 30-yard completion that cut the lead to 21-13.
Oconto Falls’ next drive ended with a punt, but Shiocton tied the game in the final minute before halftime on Bergsbaken’s 46-yard pass to Mason Demerath.
After combining for six touchdowns in the first half, both teams struggled to find the end zone in the second half.
Shiocton had an apparent first-and-goal from the Oconto Falls 1-yard line on its first drive of the half, but a holding penalty on the play helped keep the Chiefs from scoring. Shiocton eventually turned the ball over on downs.
The Panthers’ first drive of the half ended with a punt that Wyatt Hess returned 60 yards for a touchdown to give the Chiefs a 27-21 lead with 3:12 remaining in the third quarter.
Shiocton held on to that lead until Hill’s 5-yard run tied the game at 27-27 with 1:20 left in the game.
Radart then broke the tie with his fourth extra point.
Shiocton took over on its own 43-yard line following the touchdown and faced a fourth-and-13 with 39 seconds to go. Bergsbaken completed a pass to Noah Law but he was tackled short of the first-down marker, and the Panthers ran out the clock.
The Panthers started their game-winning drive at their own 32-yard line with 4 1/2 minutes on the clock.
“We also had three timeouts,” Jonas said. “There was plenty of time in that situation.”
Hill carried the ball several times on that drive.
“I get on Ethan’s case pretty hard, because he’s a senior, and I need him to be that one guy every now and then,” Jonas said. “He ran tough. We had been running the ball well in the first half. We just kept going back to the idea that we had to go with what was being successful and not try to do too much.”
Jonas said he was impressed by Shiocton’s effort despite the Chiefs’ record.
“Shiocton played great ball,” he said. “We knew they have good athletes, and we told the kids that all week long. Sometimes, homecoming games are tough, because you have so much going on throughout the week. I’m just really proud of the effort and the resiliency of these kids.”
Jonas is in his first year as varsity coach in Oconto Falls after spending last year as one of former coach Nick Bohl’s assistants. Bohl left Oconto Falls at the end of the 2024-25 school year to accept another teaching position at Chippewa Falls High School and Jonas, a member of the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, had an opportunity to replace him.
One of the Panthers’ six wins this season was a 24-8 decision over Coleman on Sept. 26 on the Cougars’ home field.
“For some of our guys, they said that’s the best they’ve seen people play,” Jonas said. “This wasn’t tonight, but we still came out with a win against a pretty good team. We feel pretty fortunate.”
