Spartans Squeak Past Panthers 14-7

There is an adage in sports that come playoff time defense is what will win you a championship. When you have two teams that are fairly evenly matched, the game often comes down to defense and capitalizing on turnovers.

The Brookfield East Spartans utilized both as they barely hung on to defeat the Greendale Panthers 14-7, to advance to the second round of the WIAA playoffs.

“It was a very good game defensively by both sides,” Spartans coach Tom Swittel said. “We left quite a few points on the field and we need to correct thatobviously.”

The Spartans did not lack for offense despite not being able to cash in on the points. Led by the rushing of junior running back Zach Schober, who amassed 236 yards on 25 carries, the Spartans were able to chew up both yardage and the clock.

A scoreless first quarter saw both teams march down the field before having their drives stalled. Both teams traded turnovers on their first possessions before trading punts. Brookfield East even had one of their punts blocked. However, the Panthers could not capitalize.

The second quarter was much like the first were both teams advanced before turnovers reared their ugly head.

The Spartans were driving down the field when a pass by junior quarterback Bryce Pompos was picked off by the Panthers Kennedy Ringleberg at his own five yard line. 

The Panthers quickly escaped the shadow of their own goal posts after a pair of runs by sophomore running back Jake Zywicki. However, the third time was definitely not the charm, as Zywicki would cough up the football at his own 31 yard line, giving the Spartans a short field to work with.

The Spartans would not waste any time, as on the very next play Zach Schober broke through and rambled 31 yards for the game’s first touchdown. The extra point gave the Spartans a 7-0 lead with just over two minutes left in the first half.

When Greendale got the ball back, their offense stalled. Three successive passing plays resulted in two incompletions and a fumble, but at least they were able to recover the fumble and punted the ball back to the Spartans.

A great punt forced the Spartans to take over on their own 27 yard line. Once again another quick strike on the first play led to pay dirt. Bryce Pompos threw a screen pass to junior wide out Kyle Wirtz. Wirtz evaded a couple of tackles before scampering 73 yards for a touchdown giving the Spartans a 14-0 lead they would take into the intermission.

Brookfield East would get the second half kickoff and methodically work their way down the field. Several runs from Schober gave the Spartans hope of adding to their lead. However, the drive would stall and they would have to settle for a field goal attempt. Unfortunately the kick sailed wide, keeping the score at 14-0.

Greendale would try to build on that momentum and drive right back down the field. Once they got into the red zone, their offense stalled and they would turn the ball over on downs inside the 20 yard line.

Despite starting deep in their own end, the Spartans tried to come out throwing. A pass from Pompos would be intercepted by sophomore Mitchell Brees who would return the ball to the Spartan 3 yard line.

Two plays later, Panther quarterback Sam Brick powered his way into the end zone to cut the gap to 14-7 on a quarterback sneak from two yards out.

The third quarter would end by that same 14-7 score.

The Spartans started the fourth quarter with a long drive highlighted by runs of 16 and 47 yards from Schober. Yet once again, deep inside Panther territory, the Spartans would once again cough up the football. This time it was at the Panther 3 yard line when senior Ben White recovered the loose ball.

Greendale, trying to ride another momentum change, began to drive towards the tying score. Quarterback Sam Brick tried to singlehandedly carry his team down the field.

He rushed the ball on ten of the next eleven plays during that drive. Starting from their own 3 yard line, they moved into enemy territory. Facing a fourth and 6 from the Spartans 42, Brick perhaps tried once too often to run the ball himself. Brookfield East junior John LeClaire slipped past a block and hammered Brick behind the line of scrimmage, giving the ball back to the Spartans with just over four minutes to play.

The Spartans would try to continue to ride the running of Schober, but the Panther defense stiffened and would force a punt with only 1:52 left on the clock.

An awesome punt rolled out of bounds at the Panther 5 yard line, setting up a long drive to try to tie the score and send the game to overtime.

The Panthers, who had struggled mightily with their passing game all night long, now needed to go 95 yards with just under two minutes to play.

Brick struggled with two incompletions and a modest two yard gain, setting up a fourth down with their season on the line. Brick would then get flushed out of the pocket, scrambling to his left before having the ball knocked out of his hands and recovered by the Spartans at the 7 yard line.

From there, the Spartans would run the favorite play in football, taking a knee twice to seal the victory and advance to the second round.

For Coach Swittel, the mistakes on offense were still glaring.

“We had a chance there at the start of the second half. We put a nice drive there,” Swittel said. “We just couldn’t quite finish it off.

"We had that field goal attempt that went wide," the coach said. "That was huge because that would have made it a three score game. We could have maybe ended the game there and we didn’t. We certainly could’ve ended it down here on that quarterback sneak, but you have just seen the last quarterback sneak that Brookfield East will ever run.”

Why would you never run another sneak?

“Because we suck at it, that’s why,” Swittel said.

Yet the defense came up huge when it mattered most. 

“There’s no question about it, our defense has been good all year,” Swittel said.

For the Spartans, they will advance to the second round to play Whitefish Bay.  For the Panthers, their season comes to an end.