Nicolet Athletic Update: Football Success Streak, Soccer Struggles and More

Nicolet Football

The Nicolet football team is now 2-0 for the first time in 11 years after . The Red Raiders were no match for the offensive exploits of Nicolet quarterback Brandon Kappel who threw three, second-half touchdown passes en route to a 28-10 win at Hart Park. A swarming defense led by Hunter Crass contained the Tosa East squad all night and the Knights benefitted from some big plays including a 70-yard touchdown pass from Kappel to Alex Walker. The Knights now take on Homestead on the road Friday. Homestead has won 60 consecutive conference games. The Nicolet JV squad is also 2-0 and will play at Homestead on Thursday night. The Frosh team lost their first game 22-6 last Thursday and will host Homestead on Thursday.

Nicolet Boys Soccer

The boy's soccer team had a tough schedule last week with two away matches against Homestead and Brookfield Central, a top five team in Milwaukee. Tuesday's match versus Homestead started with two early goals by Homestead. The Knights fought, but eventually lost 2-1. Nicolet controlled possession and created many chances but could not score enough. They displayed great fight and deserved a better result. Saturday night's match in Brookfield was always going to be difficult.

The Knights were able to keep the Lancers at bay while creating a couple scoring chances of their own. The result was a 0-0 draw. The coaching staff was extremely happy with the effort and resolve of the team. This should propel the team into another tough week with Milwaukee Lutheran Tuesday, and two trips to Kenosha to play Tremper Friday, and Bradford Saturday. The JV1 put in a strong second half to defeat the Highlanders 3-1 Tuesday.

They have a similar schedule to the varsity this week. They steadily improve under coach Hernan Quintero. The Nicolet JV2 boys soccer team continues to develop as a team. On Wednesday, the JV2 team played away from home against a very strong Whitefish Bay team losing 3-0. After giving up an early goal in the second half, the Nicolet JV2 players regrouped and held the opponents scoreless the final 37 minutes of the match and were able to create several good scoring opportunities. Goalies Sam Rezk and Lucas Kasle had very strong performances for Nicolet.

Friday, the JV2 Knights hosted St. Thomas More. Thomas More lead the match at half time 1-0 and came very close to scoring a second half goal. With goalkeeper Sam Rezk off of his goal line and the net wide open, Sean Yufa of Nicolet made a goal saving play off of a shot from a Thomas More player. In the final three minutes of the game, Tommy Wisniewski tackled the ball away from an opponent defender and made a precision pass to Jacob Kleiner. Jacob then buried the ball in the back of the net resulting in a 1-1 tie.

Nicolet Girls Volleyball

The Knights won the Riverside Tiger Invitational last week in an impressive fashion, defeating some of the best teams in the area. Currently ranked seventh, the Knights will surely move up in the rankings when they are released later this week. The team will play at Homestead on Thursday and Varsity will play in the Muskego Invite on Saturday. The JV will participate in the Riverside High School tourney on Friday.

Nicolet Boys Volleyball

The boy's volleyball team will play a tournament at Kettle Moraine High School on Saturday.

Nicolet Girls Swim

The girl's swim team is off to a good start with 47 swimmers out for the team. The Varsity won a pair of individual meets defeating Cudahy 147-27 and West Bend East 129-49. The JV squad also swept both beating Cudahy 105-43 and West Bend East 108-48. This week the team will travel to Homestead on Tuesday and the new timing system will be installed and working for the next home meet.

Nicolet Girls Tennis

Girls tennis has also had a great start to the 2011 tennis season. Currently ranked no. 3 in the state, they started out with a third-place finish in the 16 team Brookfield East team tournament. They beat Cedarburg 7-0 and Brookfield East 7-0 on day two of the tourney they dropped a close one to DSHA 3-4 in the semi's before beating Greenbay Southwest 4-3 for a third place finish.

The team then played in the Eau Claire Memorial super six round Robin Tournament. The Knights went 5-0 beating Madison West 6-1, Hartford 7-0, Greenbay Notre Dame, the division 2 state champ, 5-2, Brookfield Central 6-1, and finally Eau Claire Memorial 5-2 to take home the first place trophy. The girls had one day rest before competing in the Brookfield Central 16 team tournament. again won the first 2 rounds, beating Waukesha South 7-0 and Kenosha Tremper 5-2 before losing to Homestead in the semis and Greenbay Southwest for third place.

The girls should still be ranked third in the state behind Homestead and DSHA in the next state rankings. Erin Miller and Sara Miller have had a great start to the season going 10-1 at number one doubles. Freshman Josie Docalavich is 10-0 at the no. 4 singles. The girls play at Homestead on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. in our first Northshore conference match, then host Milwaukee Lutheran on Thursday.

Nicolet Girls Golf

The girl's golf team play at Currie in a 9-hole meet and at Blackstone on Wednesday.

Nicolet Boys and Girls Cross Country

Both boys and girls cross country teams will race in the co-ed cross country invite at Greenfield Park at 5 p.m. Friday.

Nicolet Boys Hockey team

The Whitefish Bay/Nicolet/Shorewood hockey team is seeking info from all new students who are interested in skating for WNS and asking that they contact Head Coach Maco Balkovec at his email or call (414) 507-5957 so they can have a good idea of how many skaters they will have for proper planning.