Week 1 recap – D.C. Everest vs Appleton North

EVERYTHING EVERGREENS (FOX SPORTS WAUSAU-WSAU) – On the night that Kimberly’s 70-game winning streak came to an end, Appleton-North’s blowout win over D.C. Everest will be below-the-radar. The Lightning were expected to win, and they did.

What the high school football world may not appreciate is that North is MUCH better than a year ago. They have a senior quarterback, Carter Robinson, who manages the game well, is athletic, and makes very few mistakes. They are big on both sides of the ball, and their skill players are fast. North, which has given up late leads against Kimberly in the past two years, could also hand the Papermakers a loss this season. And Appleton-North has a chip on their shoulder. Kimberly’s long winning streak shut them out from conference titles for four years.

Because they opened the season against an elite opponent, D.C. Everest is hard to evaluate after their first game. And it’s tricky to say that the team is better than a year ago after a 55-0 loss, but I think they are. Let’s start the the obvious problem. The Everest defense didn’t get any stops. North had 9 possessions, and scored 8 touchdowns. The only time they were denied was on Delton Zuleger’s interception in the second quarter. Five times the Everest defense made stands on 3rd down, only to see North go 5-for-5 on 4th down. One reason Everest struggled is that North never huddles and calls plays at the line-of-scrimmage. That made defensive substitutions difficult. And Everest wasn’t able to contain North’s speed. But the Evergreens did a better job than a year ago not getting pushed back. Most of North’s big plays were sprung by excellent blocking.

There was a sequence late in the game that is telling. North converted a 4th down, and had the ball at the 2-yard line with 2-minutes to play. On a humid, tiring night the Everest defense had nothing to play for except pride. They won the battle in the trenches, and they threw North’s running back for a three yard loss. They made stands on second and third down at the goal line. On 4th down, North finally scored on a well executed trap block from the right side. Yes, it happened against North’s second-string. But I saw determination and stick-to-it-ness, and that’s something to build on.

Everest’s offense, which didn’t score and didn’t reach the red-zone, also is better than a year ago. The offensive line held up well against a 300-pound nose tackle. They allowed only one sack. Derek Mesunas and Nick Moe both looked like promising running backs. Jager Reissmann, the fastest player on the team, saw only limited action because of a muscle pull and was obviously compromised. Chris Tilton got a lot of touches, and will be an emerging player as he develops during the season.

The biggest challenge will be keeping the team’s mindset in the right direction. They didn’t have a lot of success. They’ll play another elite team on the road next week. Everest IS better than last year. Can the team convince itself of that?