Two high school football teams heading in opposite directions met Oct. 8 in Bonduel.
Although Sturgeon Bay held Bonduel to 13 points in the second half, the undefeated Bears headed into the third quarter with a 56-0 lead and cruised to a 69-0 Packerland Conference win over the 1-7 Clippers.
The Bears clinched at least a share of the conference championship with their eighth win and can wrap up the title Oct. 16 with a win over Southern Door in the regular season finale.
Any chance Sturgeon Bay had of staying competitive with the Bears didn’t last long, as Bonduel returned a pair of interceptions for touchdowns and scored on the first play of three of its drives in the first half.
Sturgeon Bay played without its leading rusher, Rayshaune Johnson, who sat out with an injury.
Coach James Westrich said he wanted his team to improve in some areas from its previous game, a 42-21 win over Oconto.
“We knew they were missing a couple of guys, and we’re just trying to focus on us, try to do some things better this week that we didn’t do well last week,” he said. “We lost the turnover battle last week and wanted to make sure we did a better job with that, taking control of things we could control.”
Bonduel ended up with four interceptions and a fumble recovery.
Carter Moesch opened the scoring on the game’s second play after picking off Trygg Stuth’s pass and returning it 43 yards. Moesch then capped the Bears’ first offensive drive with a 22-yard touchdown run, and Collin Fischer returned another Stuth interception 22 yards for Bonduel’s third score that made it 21-0 less than halfway through the first quarter.
Quinn Wesenberg hooked up with Jack Weier for a 53-yard scoring pass on the first play of Bonduel’s next drive, and Malachi Gray’s 42-yard run on the first play of the Bears’ next drive gave the home team a 35-0 lead with 3:32 remaining in the first quarter.
Wesenberg and Weier teamed up for their second touchdown pass one play after Wesenberg’s interception set the Bears up at the Sturgeon Bay 28-yard line.
Bonduel added a pair of touchdowns in the second quarter on Gray’s 38-yard run and Jackson Reyment’s 5-yard run that came after Eli Rekoske’s interception gave the Bears the ball at the Sturgeon Bay 38-yard line.
Gage Scholl opened the second half with a 79-yard kickoff return, and Bonduel’s final score came on Andrew Kolaske’s 50-yard run in the fourth quarter.
“We just have to keep building,” Westrich said. “We want to make sure we’re playing our best football at the end of the season and be ready to go for the playoffs.”
The lopsided score gave the Bears a chance to use several younger players, and Westrich said he liked their effort.
“I’m really proud of these young kids that came in and played,” he said. “They played really well. It’s good to see our young guys starting to step a little bit and get some good experience.”
Sturgeon Bay’s Alex Boden slips away from Bonduel’s Mason Stuewer on a kickoff return in the second half of a Packerland Conference game at Bonduel High School. (Greg Seubert)
