Appleton West used two scoring spurts, one in each half, to pull away and defeat Manitowoc Lincoln 44-to-21 last night in the high school football season opener for both teams.
The host Terrors and visiting Shipbuilders had their share of penalties and mistakes on opening night in what otherwise was an entertaining game.
Lincoln trailed 23-0 at halftime, following a safety on the sack of quarterback Brock Peterson in the endzone to open the scoring.
It remained 2-0 until the midway point of the 2nd quarter when West tallied 3 touchdowns in a four-minute span to grab a commanding lead.
But, Coach Greg Enz’s team would rally in the second half behind Peterson, who completed 12 of 25 passes for 255 yards and touchdowns to Maxwell Schneider and Jordan Andrastek-Storms, on a deflection, covering 41 and 35 yards.
Walker Linboom scored on an 11-yard rushing TD in between those scores and all of a sudden it was 23-21.
But, the game turned again with 7 minutes remaining, when on 3rd and 15 from the 42, the Terrors’ Ben Vallafskey took an option pitch 58 yards down the sideline for a touchdown.
They followed that up with two additional scores, in the course of a 2-minute stretch, to win by 23, 44-21.
A bright spot for the Lincoln defense was 11 quarterback sacks.
Manitowoc Lincoln returns to action next Friday night when they travel to Muskegon, Michigan to face Mona Shores High School in the first “Battle For The Badger” cross-lake car ferry series.
