Southwest flips the switch in shutting down Pulaski

GREEN BAY - The Green Bay Southwest football team stacked up points and attention last season by switching to a no-huddle offense.

The Southwest defense simply flipped the switch on Friday to get in on the fun.

The Trojans shut down Pulaski in the second half to come away with a 17-6 victory in a Fox River Classic Conference game at Dahlin Family Stadium.

Southwest (2-0) limited the Red Raiders to 77 yards of offense and two first downs in the second half in addition to piling up seven sacks for the game.

“It’s tough to get prepared for that kind offense,” Southwest co-head coach Tim Birr said about Pulaski’s single-wing offense. “We never see it anymore.

“We saw all these big plays that they got (last week). We told our guys if we can just hang in there and make them go 70 or 80 yards, then we’re going to be OK. We’re going to find our groove at some point during the game.”

The Trojans got in the groove after senior Alijah Laviolette made an interception and returned it to the Pulaski 5-yard line, setting up a touchdown rush by junior Josh Komis on the next play to give Southwest a 7-6 lead with 3 minutes, 24 seconds remaining in the first half.

It was a first half that was largely dominated by the Red Raiders (1-1), who had the ball for 17 minutes, 49 seconds through the first 24 minutes of play.

Nearly 8 minutes of that was occupied on an 18-play, 98-yard drive that Pulaski went on in its second series of the game. The possession was capped by a 15-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Dylan Hendricks to senior Luke VandenHeuvel with 1:21 left in the first quarter.

Laviolette lost a fumble on a rushing play on the first play from scrimmage on the ensuing drive, but redeemed himself in a big way with the second-quarter interception.

“Actually, I was supposed to be covering the flat,” Laviolette said. “But I switched right away when I saw the quarterback drop back.”

Senior Nathan Raymaker accounted for three of Southwest’s sacks, rattling a Pulaski team that didn’t attempt a pass in its Week 1 win against Manitowoc.

After the Trojans got a 19-yard field goal from senior Ryan Burton to start the second half, their defense forced a stop on downs while backed up against their 14-yard line.

Southwest was seemingly in position to put the game out of reach against the run-oriented Red Raiders when Komis broke free for a 42-yard rush on the ensuing drive. However, Komis lost a fumble while fighting for yardage inside the Pulaski 10.

The Trojans defense remained tough to break, though, forcing the Red Raiders into three consecutive punts on three-and-out possessions.

“We were unable to find a spot to exploit where they weren’t able to get us in a one-on-one situation,” said Pulaski coach Jerad Marsh, whose team totaled 205 yards of offense, including 162 rushing yards. “We got the edge a couple of times and weren’t able to get turned on the edge. Last week, we were able to make that turn and get a big play. This week, we weren’t.”

Pulaski will look to bounce back next week when it plays its first game on its new field against Sheboygan North.

Junior Allen Bunker added a 15-yard rush with 3:57 left in the game for Southwest, which totaled 232 yards of offense, including 146 yards on the ground. It continued to rotate Komis and sophomore Nick Howard quarterback.

Southwest will be on the road next week at De Pere, which beat the Trojans twice last season.

“It’s so much better to be 2-0 than 1-1,” said Birr, whose defense has allowed only six points through eight quarters of play this year. “We got some tough games coming up.”

apekarek@greenbaypressgazette.com and follow him on Twitter @andrewpekarek.

Pulaski…6 0 0 0 – 6

G.B. Southwest…0 7 3 7 – 17

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

PUL - Luke VandenHeuvel 15 pass from Dylan Hendricks (Kick failed)

Second Quarter

SW - Josh Komis 5 run (Ryan Burton kick)

Third Quarter

SW - Burton 19 field goal

Fourth Quarter

SW - Allen Bunker 15 run (Burton kick)

Individual Statistics

Rushing: PUL: Joe Franks 22-86; SW: Josh Komis 16-78.

Passing: PUL: Dustin Graf 2-7-1-23; Dylan Hendricks 2-3-0-20; SW: Komis 5-9-0-48; Nick Howard 4-7-0-38.

Receiving: PUL: Luke Vandenheuvel 2-37; SW: Joe Statz 4-54.