Kewaunee handed the Bonduel football team its only Packerland Conference loss of the season.
Nearly two months after that 14-7 defeat, the Bears are getting another crack at the Storm.
Bonduel opened the WIAA state playoffs Oct. 24 with a 49-21 win over St. Mary Catholic in a Level 1 matchup of Division 6 teams.
Kewaunee, a No. 1 seed, also opened the playoffs with a win, as the Storm beat Marathon 36-6.
The Storm will now host the third-seeded Bears at 7 p.m. Oct. 31.
The game’s first two drives ended in a turnover on downs and fumble.
The Bears took the opening kickoff and drove to the St. Mary Catholic 5-yard line before turning the ball over on downs.
Jack Zernicke recovered a fumble on the Zephyrs’ second play to give the Bears the ball on the 3-yard line, and Carter Moesch scored on the first play of the drive with 7:01 remaining in the first quarter.
The teams then exchanged touchdowns on the game’s next four drives.
The Zephyrs tied the game at 7-7 with Trinkner’s 3-yard quarterback keeper, but Bonduel answered with a 63-yard drive that ended with a 5-yard run from Moesch.
Trinkner capped the Zephyrs’ next drive with a 1-yard run with just over two minutes remaining in the first half that tied the game at 14-14.
The Bears had plenty of time to answer the game-tying score, as Moesch found the end zone for the third time with a 5-yard run with 1:05 on the clock that gave Bonduel the lead for good.
The Bears added four unanswered touchdowns in the second half before the Zephyrs scored late in the game.
Cory Wussow recovered the Zephyrs’ onside kick attempt to start the second half that gave the Bears the ball at midfield. Malachi Gray capped the drive with a 17-yard run to give Bonduel a 28-14 advantage and added a 10-yard touchdown run on the Bears’ second drive.
Zernicke added a 31-yard touchdown run with 2:03 remaining in the third quarter, and Moesch wrapped up the scoring with an 11-yard run with 7:27 left in the game that started a running clock.
The Zephyrs’ final score came on Brenden Huelsbeck’s 35-yard run with 2:30 remaining in the game.
A halftime talk from coach James Westrich turned out to give the Bears motivation for the second half.
“We just forgot some of our fundamentals early on,” he said. “We were getting out of position and allowing for easier plays that needed to be. We just kind of got back to our basics in the locker room at halftime. We focused on doing our job first. We came out and played with great passion.”
The Bears relied on their rushing game, which averaged more than seven yards per carry.
“One of our focuses at the beginning of the game was sustaining our blocks and letting our guys down field,” Westrich said. “I thought our (offensive) line did a really good job this week.”
Although the Zephyrs scored three touchdowns against the Bears, the Storm is averaging nearly 39 points a game. The 14 points Kewaunee scored against Bonduel on Sept. 12 is the Storm’s lowest of the season.
Kewaunee will bring a 9-1 record into the playoff game, while the Bears are 8-2.
“We know we’re playing a great opponent that we saw earlier in the year,” Westrich said. “We have to make sure we get healthy, clean up what we didn’t do well the first time and see how it goes.”
