Third-round revisited

As I write this entry, I'm watching the replay of the Ripon-Mayville game on Fondy's Channel 25 right now.

Wow.

What a game this was. Anyone that paid $3 to get into this one should go back to Ripon and plop down a $20 bill. Even that is a steal.

Scott Gillespie did everything in his power to get a victory for Ripon, but Mayville's Matt Haass just had the gamebreakers around him to get the job done. Tyson Apfelbeck turned in the second-best performance of a receiver in the area on Saturday (more a little bit later on the best one).

Ripon should definitely be proud of its postseason. To beat top-seeded Lodi in Lodi, to force overtime against Chilton and to trade blows with Mayville for all but the last few minutes of a third-round game was incredible for a team that didn't have the best regular season. But there was something that seemed to click for the Tigers once the postseason started.

Mayville, on the other hand, is playing like a state title contender. When Ripon grabbed a 28-20 lead, I was surprised with how Mayville responded. For a team that hadn't been this far in the playoffs in some time, it was quite the showing. For more on the game, read Doug Whiteley's story here.

I saw a pretty good game myself in Arrowhead's 36-21 victory over Fond du Lac. From the very first play of the game, an 80-yard touchdown pass from Ben Anderson to Kyle Senn, it was clear that Fondy was not going to be intimidated.

The Cards lost the game in the second half when Arrowhead bottled up Senn, who had seven catches for 179 yards... the best performance I've seen from a receiver this year. He also had three touchdown catches and made several impressive grabs. He should get some all-state recognition from someone.

Finally, hats off to Kewaskum for battling back to beat Waupun. I'll get a chance to check out Casey Scheel for the first time this weekend... and according to the stats from coach Jason Piittman, Scheel has done it all for the Indians.