New Lisbon's playoff trip ends quickly with 39-0 loss
New Lisbon's Mitchell Vinz secures the ball during the Rockets playoff loss to Plum City on Tuesday.
By David Paradise
Star-Times Sports Editor
The New Lisbon Rocket football team made a 164 mile journey to Ellsworth, to kickoff the WIAA Division 7 Playoffs on Tuesday.
Unfortunately the ride home for the Rockets wouldn't be a celebration as New Lisbon was shutout, and fell 39-0 to the host Plum City Blue Devils.
The Rockets kicked off to the Blue Devils to start the game and Plum City's offense went to work. The Blue Devils ran the ball right at the Rocket defense and where able to drive down the field and score to open up an early 7-0 advantage with 7:29 left in the first quarter.
New Lisbon's offense looked to even the score, senior running back Mitchell Vinz was able to break off a 12-yard run on the Rocket sideline, and Anthony Edgren followed it with a 14-yard run through the middle of the Blue Devil defense as New Lisbon quickly got things going. Following a short Vinz run, New Lisbon went to the air. Rocket quarterback CoBretti Forsythe's deep pass fell incomplete as Tyler Peterson made a diving effort to come up with the ball. New Lisbon was able to keep the drive going behind a pair of strong runs by Vinz, before a sack put the Rockets in a third and long situation.
Plum City was able to intercept the Rocket pass to regain possession.
The Blue Devils' offense used a long run followed by a long pass to move back into the Rockets' territory before an 18-yard touchdown run gave the Blue Devils a 13-0 lead with 2:44 left in the first quarter.
New Lisbon was forced into a quick three and out and Plum City's next drive spanned the first quarter, into the second. As the Blue Devils got closer to the goal-line the Rocket defense stiffened, but New Lisbon couldn't come up with a stop on a fourth down inside their own 5- yard-line, and the Blue Devils went up 19-0.
The Rockets looked to narrow the gap on their next drive, and a tough run be Edgren gave New Lisbon some much needed momentum, but a sack and a pair of Rocket penalties stalled the drive and New Lisbon was forced to punt back to Plum City.
The Blue Devils didn't have the ball for long, as Justin Pollack came up with a huge interception, to give New Lisbon's offense another shot.
After a fumbled pitch the Rockets faced a second and long, and tried to get something going with the passing game, but an incompletion and a dropped pass led to another Rocket punt.
Plum City would take advantage and scored on a quick 5-play drive in the final minutes of the half to take a 27-0 lead into the break.
New Lisbon got the ball to start the second half and was hoping to cut down on the mistakes that plagued them throughout the opening 24 minutes of action.
Following runs by Vinz and Edgren, Forsythe was able to get a pass to Edgren for a nice 11-yard gain on third down, to keep the Rockets' drive alive.
The drive was once again stalled by a penalty and another sack on Forsythe and New Lisbon was forced to punt.
A long return by the Blue Devils, set up another score as they increased their lead to 33-0 with 8:46 left in the third quarter.
New Lisbon would once again try to get something going on offense, as Vinz and Edgren combined to pick up a first down, and Pollack rotated in at running back to change things up.
New Lisbon was able to pick up a pair of first on the ground, before another sack stalled the drive and an incomplete pass on fourth down gave the ball back to Plum City.
Plum City would keep the ball on the ground as they drove down the field and scored on the first play of the fourth quarter to push the lead to 39-0.
New Lisbon would try to get on the scoreboard, but another Rocket pass was intercepted and Plum City ran out the clock and moved on.
"The kids played hard and never gave up," New Lisbon coach Brad Bever said. "We had a lot of mistakes early."
New Lisbon was led by Vinz with 94 yards on 18 carries. The Rockets were limited to just 134 yards by the Blue Devils' defense, and they seemed a step slow following the long trip.
Bever said."We haven't had the best draw the past couple seasons, but we need to play better throughout the year so hopefully we can host a level 1 game. I would like to thank the five seniors for their hard work. We have a lot of guys coming back, and we have met our goal of making the playoffs the last few years. Now we need to take the next step."
More pictures from the New Lisbon's playoff game will be coming soon.