The 2025 football season has come to an end for the Manitowoc Lincoln Ships, but Head Coach Evan Smith says the record is not indicative of how the season went.
The Ships ended the season with a dominant 53-21 win over Sheboygan South, bumping their record to 2-7 on the season.
Coach Smith noted, however, that there were several games throughout the season that were within striking distance, including a 7-3 loss to Green Bay West and a 21-13 loss to Sheboygan North, and a couple of games that were much closer than the final score indicated.
During Tuesday morning’s episode of On The Line, Smith praised his defense.
“Statistically, we were up there in the top (in the conference) as far as tackles, sacks, interceptions, turnovers,” he revealed.
Offensively, the Ships had a similar struggle to what the Green Bay Packers had for the first few weeks, inconsistency on the offensive line.
“By the end of the year, I think we settled in…with our offensive line. We started getting kids playing together consistently,” Smith noted. “The first part of the year, we had guys all over the place.”
There are some key pieces on the offense that will be graduating this year, notably Center Carter Thennes, who was a foundational piece of the offensive line, Guard Issac Martinez, who was a two-year starter, and QB turned Tight End Brett Danielson, who was the emotional core of the entire team.
Defensively, there will be a lot of roles to fill. Corners Roman Zak and Brenndon Wolf, Safeties Keaton Leurquin and Noah Blaser, Linebackers Malakai Munoz and Bram Neumann, and D-Linemen Austin Miller and Thornton Ash are all set to graduate, all of whom played a major role in the defense.
“Every year, you have got to keep developing these kids,” Smith explained. “The JV stuff, the youth football,…Camps. All things that we’ll be talking about later on…when we kind of get the dates and everything stapled in.”
Another big loss is Kicker Benson Dickrell, who honed his craft as a game changer.
Dickrell was a sure thing on all extra points and field goals, but he also came into his own as a punter this season, a spot he had no experience with at the start.
By the end, Dickrell flipped the field numerous times, and caused a turnover in the final game of the season.
As for the future of the program, Smith is excited to see what the offseason and next season bring.
“The future is bright for the conference, for our team,” he said. “(The) biggest thing is we’ve got to get the kids in the weight room. We’ve got to get them bigger and stronger.”
There are a few local teams that did make the postseason, including Manitowoc Lutheran, which completed a perfect regular season, Mishicot, Roncalli, Reedsville, Kiel, Brillion, Chilton, and Hilbert, just to name a few.
The Lancers game against Waterloo will be aired this Friday on 980 WCUB and CubRadio.com, while the Jets vs Royall from Ron Rubick Field will be aired on 1240 WOMT and WOMTRadio.com.
Coverage of both games begins at 6:45 p.m.
