Football: Big second-half plays carry North past South in WFCA Small Schools All-Star game

Even with help from a handful of Lodi players, including Brady Puls, Jayce Kolinski, Henry Koeppen and Josh Klann, the South fell to the North 31-13 in the WFCA Small School All-Star Game held at UW-Oshkosh on Saturday.

The South team grabbed a 13-0 lead in the first quarter, but the North scored 31 unanswered points to roll up a victory.

Carter Leibham (Lake Country Lutheran) opened the scoring, catching an 8-yard touchdown pass from Gibsen Sporle (Mineral Point) with 8:11 left in the first quarter. The South’s Carter Schwartz (Horicon/Hustisford) then found Gunner Boegli (Brodhead/Juda) from 23 yards out later in the period.

The North defense took over from there, limiting the South to just 120 yards after allowing 111 yards of offense in the first quarter. In the second half alone, the North squad intercepted three passes, returning one for a 32-yard touchdown by Edgar’s Teegan Streit, and recovered a fumble.

On offense, the North’s balanced rushing attack racked up 197 yards on 43 attempts — 67 coming on Demetrius Bergmann (Pepin/Alma) touchdown run midway through the second quarter. A.J. Seidler (Xavier) booted a 22-yard field goal later in the half, leaving the North down 13-10 at halftime.

Two big plays, occurring just over a minute apart, changed everything. Caymen Gebheim (Somerset) pressured South quarterback Carter Schwartz into a poor throw that Streit stepped in front of and returned for a touchdown. The South went three-and-out on its next series, and the North took advantage, running a play-action fake out of the Wing-T, as Evan Olson (Pepin/Alma) got behind the defense for a wide open 67-yard touchdown catch from Justin Klinkner (Two Rivers) to make it 24-13 in favor of North.

To close out the scoring, Chase Matthias (Two Rivers) plunged in from 5 yards on fourth and one with just 48 seconds remaining.

Leading the North on the ground, Demetrius Bergmann had 77 yards, scoring one touchdown. Matthias was second with 41 yards, while Karter Butt (Edgar) added 37 yards. Cal Smith completed 6-of-9 passes for 52 yards, with Klinkner’s lone completion being the long touchdown to Olson, who caught two passes for 79 yards.

Falling behind, the South kept throwing, with Gibsen Sporle passing for 108 yards and a touchdown and Carter Schwartz adding 96 yards and a score.

Gunner Boeglie paced the South with 78 receiving yards on five catches, while Randy Moore (Milwaukee Academy of Science) finished with a game-high six catches for 31 yards.

Caymen Gebheim recorded two-and-a-half tackles for loss with a sack, while Brady Lehnherr (Aquinas), Teegan Streit, and Wyatt Hamersma (Berlin) recorded interceptions. Jadon Lewis (Living Word Lutheran) had a fumble recovery, 1.5 tackles for loss, and half a sack for the South.