Pulaski’s season ends with loss to Notre Dame

For a while, it looked like the Pulaski football team might be able to stand toe-to-toe with one of Wisconsin’s top programs.

Eventually, however, it turned into the Kingston Allen show.

The senior running back and University of Wisconsin recruit ran for 284 yards and scored all five of Notre Dame’s touchdowns Nov. 6 in a 35-7 win over the Red Raiders in a WIAA Division 2 Level 3 playoff game in Green Bay.

Allen’s touchdowns included runs of 2, 3 and 2 yards in the second quarter that helped the Tritons build a 21-7 halftime lead.

After a scoreless first quarter, his first touchdown gave Notre Dame a 7-0 lead less than two minutes into the second quarter.

The lead didn’t last long however, as Keaton Dauk’s long kickoff return set the Red Raiders up at the Notre Dame 42-yard line. Bohdan Schmidt opened the drive with an 11-yard run, Anthony Ficarri scored from 31 yards out on the next play and Mason Borseth’s extra point tied the game at 7-7 with 9:35 remaining in the opening half.

Allen capped 73- and 72-yard drives with his second and third touchdown runs later in the quarter, including his third with 18 seconds to go in the half.

He picked up where he left off on the Tritons’ next drive, as his 60-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second half gave the home team a 28-7 advantage.

His fifth score came on a 24-yard run with 5:23 to go in the game.

“Our goal was to be able to take away the big play, and we really were for a good amount of time,” coach Jerad Marsh said. “We got fatigued a little bit in the second quarter. We had a short offensive drive and had to come back out after a long defensive series. A team like that is going to be able to take advantage of you once you get fatigued a little.”

Notre Dame turned the ball over on consecutive drives in the third quarter, but Pulaski couldn’t take advantage of a short field.

Braun Wotruba set the Red Raiders up at the Pulaski 48-yard line after intercepting Jackson Bouthilet’s pass, and Bouthilet fumbled on the Tritons’ next drive to give Pulaski the ball at the Notre Dame 27-yard line. That drive ended after Quinn Blom intercepted Schmidt’s pass attempt to Dauk in the end zone.

“That just shows the determination and passion that these guys have for each other,” Marsh said. “They knew we had to get some extra possessions to be able to try and do anything.”

Andre Burnett, the team’s third-leading rusher this season behind Schmidt and Ficarri, injured his ankle on the second play of the game, didn’t return and left the field after the game with crutches.

“You just have to have the next man up,” Marsh said. “We were able to have some guys that stepped in there for a little bit and did exactly what we needed them to do. It’s not something you plan for or hope for, especially for a talented young man like that.”

Notre Dame held Pulaski to 93 rushing yards. Ficarri led the Red Raiders with 55 on eight carries, but Schmidt, who left the game with an injury during Pulaski’s first drive in the second half and later returned, finished with 7 yards on seven carries.

Schmidt also completed 4-of-7 passes for 31 yards in his final high school football game.

While Notre Dame will face another 12-0 team – Union Grove – in a state semifinal Nov. 13, the Red Raiders’ season ended with a 9-3 mark. All three of Pulaski’s losses came to teams still in the playoffs: Notre Dame, Bay Port and West De Pere.

“It was just a really neat group of young men,” Marsh said. “They play for each other, care for their school and had really high goals from the time we started lifting (weights) in June to the last second that clicked off this clock.”

Marsh expects his team to build off the momentum of a successful season and carry it into 2027.

“The seniors laid the groundwork and have for years in Pulaski,” he said. “We put a lot of time and effort into what they want their season to look like.”