Phantoms run rampant through Shawano defense

The Shawano defense couldn’t come up with a stop in the first half, and the West De Pere offense ran rampant as the Hawks fell, 56-27, Friday in De Pere.

The offense wasn’t much better early on for Shawano, which had three first downs in the first half.

“We were a little timid at the point of attack, and it caused collisions to happen on our side of the line of scrimmage,” Shawano head coach Al Tomow said.

West De Pere quarterback Matthew McNabb rushed 70 yards on his team’s second play of the game, and running back Austin Beaumier punched in another score just over three minutes later. A recovered squib kick on the ensuing kickoff led to Beaumier’s second TD on a 29-yard run to put West De Pere ahead 21-0 less than 7 minutes into the game.

“It was more a matter of us getting back to who we are and what we wanted to do,” West De Pere head coach Jack Batten said. “We wanted to play a real physical football game, we wanted it to be downhill, we wanted to be up-tempo, and unless we needed to, I didn’t want to throw the football.”

The Phantoms (8-1, 7-1 Bay Conference) racked up 451 rushing yards on 41 plays without attempting a pass on the night.

Trailing by 42 points, Shawano (5-4, 4-4 Bay) started the second half with back-to-back three-and-outs against West De Pere’s backup offense.

The Hawks scored on each of their first two possessions of the half, a 49-yard strike from quarterback Jack Hanauer to Dylan Sumnicht and 3-yard run by Hanauer, to cut the deficit to 30 and stop the running clock.

“We had some protection breakdowns in the first half that we weren’t able to stretch the field,” Tomow said. “And once we got those kind of fixed for the second half, we were kind of able to get our playmakers out in space and show what we could do.”

Batten put his starters back in the game on offense, including Beaumier, who posted 187 yards on 18 carries.

“We go three-and-out, they score again, and all of the sudden it’s a football game again,” Batten said. “I think, just to assure we won the football game, we had to put our first-team offense in.

“Give them credit. Their kids kept playing hard. Some of our backups didn’t play as well as we needed them to, and it forced us to go back to our first-team offense. But I think it’s more of a credit to the Shawano kids in the fact that they kept playing.”

McNabb, who finished the game with 20 rushes for 242 yards and three scores, scored on a 3-yard run to put the hosts back up by 37.

Shawano drove down the field before Hanauer’s second interception stalled the drive. After forcing a punt, the Hawks scored on a 66-yard punt return by Sumnicht, who had cramped up during Shawano’s previous drive, with just over 90 seconds remaining. It was Sumnicht’s third score of the game.

Sumnicht finished the game with three receptions for 81 yards, while Hanauer was 13 of 21 passing for 169 yards. Kien Moorman rushed the ball 12 times for 87 yards.

West De Pere 56, Shawano 27

Team 1 2 3 4 F

Shawano 0 7 12 8 27

West De Pere 21 28 0 7 56

First quarter

WDP: Matthew McNabb 70-yard run (PAT good) 7-0 (9:32).

WDP: Austin Beaumier 8-yard run (PAT good) 14-0 (6:12).

WDP: Beaumier 29-yard run (PAT good) 21-0 (5:33).

Second quarter

WDP: Beaumier 1-yard run (PAT missed) 27-0 (11:08).

S: Dylan Sumnicht 12-yard reception from Jack Hanauer (PAT good) 27-7 (7:25).

WDP: McNabb 28-yard run (conversion good) 35-7 (5:36).

WDP: Beaumier 25-yard run (PAT good) 42-7 (2:58).

WDP: Beaumier 1-yard run (PAT good) 49-7 (0:13).

Third quarter

S: Sumnicht 49-yard reception from Hanauer (PAT blocked) 49-13 (6:50).

S: Hanauer 3-yard run (conversion missed) 49-19 (1:55).

Fourth quarter

WDP: McNabb 3-yard run (PAT good) 56-19 (10:36).

S: Sumnicht 66-yard punt return (conversion good) 56-27 (1:38).