Tosa West Outdisciplined, Outplayed by Greendale in 42-13 Loss

Tosa West visited the Greendale Panthers on Friday Sept 26 for the Greendale homecoming. For Greendale, this homecoming victory was an easy one. Early first quarter Trojan slipups came in multiple ways: a dropped, sure-to-be-a-touchdown pass, a mishandled long snap on a punt attempt that led to a quick TD. Add several Trojan drive-stopping penalties and you have the makings of a lopsided loss against one of the better high school teams in Wisconsin.

On the bright side, the Trojans had a good start. On the Panther’s first possession the Tosa West defense was pumped up, with a nice sandwich tackle for a loss by Jake Hronek and Arrion Dixon, followed by another tackle for a loss by Christian Morzinski. And Greendale was forced to punt.

Our offense started sharp too, with two first downs and a nice run by Demaris Purifoy to midfield. Then our drive stalled and the ball went back to Greendale. This time Josh Ringleberg – the Panther’s talented QB broke a run through the left side of the Trojan line and knifed his way through the secondary for a 50 yard score. With 5 min left in the first quarter Greendale lead 7-0.

The Trojans next possession was a quick one and things continued looking bright, as Purifoy took the handoff and sprinted through an off-tackle runway and two arm tackles, and 65 yards later he stepped on pay dirt. The Trojans went for a two-point conversion that failed, and the score was 7-6, at the 4:53 mark.

Trojan fans had little time to enjoy their excitement: to be exact, 18 seconds on the game clock.

We kicked off to Greendale and had a good tackle on the return. But on the Panther’s first play from scrimmage they gave the ball to Angel Ramirez, a fast and crafty tailback. In a flash he travelled 60 yards for a score, and it was 14-6.

On their next possession, Tosa West had a chance to keep the game close when QB Rayvon Bartlett Jr threw a strike to his wide out – but the ball was dropped, requiring a Trojan punt. On the punt attempt, the snap was low and mishandled. After the Trojan punter was tackled deep in Trojan territory, it took two plays for Greendale to score and go up 21-6.

As the 2nd quarter got underway, Greendale took command with the help of Trojan penalties. The Panther’s first score was a one-yard plunge by their QB. Their next score came when the Trojan’s tried to free up their own QB on a play where he handed off to a back going right and Bartlett Jr tried to escape on a short post route to the left. But the Panthers had this play figured out: they picked off the pass and ran 60 yards for the score, and it was 35-6.

Before the half ended, the Trojan defense battled to keep the Panthers out of their end zone. Morzinski had a rodeo sack to end a drive, and on the next Panther drive junior Justin Folley made a nice open field tackle. That play was followed by a QB sack-sandwich by seniors Blake Braxton and Orin Eckes – and the half came to a close.

After halftime, the Panthers’ QB capped an impressive drive with a 10 yard passing touchdown. The Trojans countered with junior Kobe Vines who showed some bruising interior runs – reminiscent of Tosa West’s Greg Lewis in 2013 and his “carry the tacklers with you” running style. Kobe capped off a run-dominated drive with a bruising 10-yard crash into the end zone, which made the final score 42-13.

The Trojans are now 1-3 in their Woodland West Conference and 3-3 overall. Next week the Trojans travel to New Berlin West to meet the Vikings who are looking for their first win.

With three games remaining in their regular season, if the Trojans win out they will remain in contention for a state playoff berth. So look for the Tosa West seniors to take control and lead a big-time bounce-back as the season winds down.