Knights Rally Falls Short in 41-21 Loss to Milwaukee Lutheran

Nicolet’s football team almost survived the offense onslaught of Milwaukee Lutheran’s two-pronged attack of quarterback Jake Nelson and running back Tyler White on Friday. 

Despite giving up 498 yards in combined offense between those two, Nicolet almost squeaked out a victory.  The Knights trailed 28-7 before closing to within 28-21 before a late turnover deep in their own end doomed them.  Two late touchdowns made the final 41-21, but the game was much closer than the score would indicate.

“We need to execute better,” said Knights head coach Brad Kozaczuk.  “We came out in the first half and didn’t execute our defensive game plan the way we were talking about all week in practice.  We tried to play off of instinct and off our feelings as opposed to our training.  When we came out in the second half we started doing what we were taught to do then we saw turnovers, knocked down balls, and pressure on the quarterback.  Things started to happen the way we thought they would happen.”

The first half saw Milwaukee Lutheran mount its offensive juggernaut behind the efforts of both Nelson and White.

White would score the first of his three touchdowns on the night on a 5 yard run.  White’s run came off numerous short passing plays from Nelson amassing 88 yards on the drive. White’s touchdown capped a 94-yard drive, however the extra point attempt failed.

After both teams traded possessions, the Red Knights of Milwaukee Lutheran were forced to punt.  Nicolet’s Tyler Crass returned the punt 57 yards to the Lutheran 20-yard line, setting up a short drive.

It would only take four plays for Brandon Kappel to drive his team into the endzone, capping off the drive with a 6-yard run.  Kappel then converted the extra point to give the Knights a 7-6 lead.

Just over a minute later, Milwaukee Lutheran would strike again when Trevor Kurth snared a pass from Nelson from 6 yards out to give the Red Knights a 12-6 lead.  The two-point conversion attempt failed.

Nicolet would then go three and out and give the ball back to the Red Knights at their own 21.

Nelson then led his team down the field with surgical precision with the short passing game.  Quickly marching down the field, the Red Knights found themselves inside the red zone.  Nelson then hit Desmond Williams with a 16-yard touchdown pass, but the play was called back on a penalty for a false start.  The penalty was only a minor setback, as on the very next play, Nelson teamed up with Williams again, this time for a 22-yard touchdown to give the Red Knights a 20-7 lead that they would take into halftime.

Late in the third quarter, White would score his second touchdown, this time on a 2-yard run.  Another successful 2-point conversion would make the score 28-7.

Nicolet would seize the momentum in the game when Bernard Stutts picked up a loose ball and rambled 59 yards for a touchdown. Brandon Kappel hit Ben Fischer on a quick slant, but Fischer coughed up the football.  Stutts scooped up the ball as the Red Knights stood around watching, and rambled down the sidelines for the touchdown. This cut the lead to 28-14  

The very next possession saw Crass pick off a Nelson pass at the Lutheran 37.  Three plays later Kappel hit Tanner Bowen on a 22-yard touchdown pass to make the score 28-21.  It looked like Nicolet was on a roll.

However, Nelson had other ideas and found James Dills on a 13-yard touchdown pass for his third touchdown of the night. The extra point failed making the score 34-21.

Nicolet was poised to come back again, but a pass from Kappel was picked off by Matt Rogers and brought back to the Nicolet 20-yard line. 

Three plays later White would score his third touchdown of the game to close out the scoring at 41-21.

Nicolet Coach Kozaczuk thought that this was a game his team let slip away.

“The fumble return for a touchdown gave everybody some life,” said Kozaczuk.  “It gave us some confidence and right now we ride that wave.  When things are going good we do good things.  When things are going bad we do bad things.  It’s just sort of a snowball effect on it. We got to find a way to break out of that cycle.”

Nelson completed 26 of his 35 passes for 341 yards and 3 touchdowns.  His 3 interceptions were almost costly, but his team was able to overcome those mistakes. White rushed for 157 yards on 21 carries and the three touchdowns.

Nicolet’s record falls to 2-2 (0-2 North Shore Conference), while Milwaukee Lutheran remains unbeaten at 4-0 (2-0).