Memorial crushes Brown Deer

Brown Deer — The first possession took 11 plays and moved 42 yards for the Brown Deer football team in its WIAA Division 3 Level 1 playoff game with visiting Catholic Memorial on Tuesday.

But it ended in a fumble on the Crusaders' 25, and seven plays later Memorial was in the end zone and then never looked back as the Falcons' Classic 8 Conference opponents rolled up 461 total yards in a 48-14 season-ending rout.

"We had to score on that first possession," said Brown Deer coach Rob Green. "You can't turn it over against a great team. We go in there, it would have given us momentum, but we didn't get it."

The loss ended the Falcon season at 7-3, while the Crusaders advanced to a Level 2 game Saturday against New Berlin Eisenhower, a 17-10 victor over Whitefish Bay.

Behind the power running of tailback Pete Karczewski (18 carries for 174 yards and a touchdown), the Crusaders started opening gaps in the middle of the Falcons defense on the second possession. The march took just seven plays to move 74 yards with Karczewski going over from eight yards out.

Three possessions later, the Crusaders went 83 yards in eight plays with Dylan Wolf crashing over from three yards. Karczewski had four carries for 59 yards on the drive.

Then the Crusaders broke the Falcons back with two touchdowns in the space of a minute-and-a-half. A two-play strike ended with a 28-yard counter play touchdown by Joe Fleming. Then on the ensuing kickoff, the Falcons' Lawrence Rabon was absolutely crushed and subsequently fumbled.

Three plays later, quarterback Dominic Zanoni hit T.J. Bray with a 14-yard scoring pass and a 25-0 halftime lead.

"That was a good team, they really took us out of the things we wanted to do," said Green. "A big, fast impressive team."

Brown Deer did have some fight in the second half. A seven-play 52-yard drive ended in a six-yard Chris Smith touchdown run in the third quarter. Smith had an incredible 26-yard run on a screen pass where he made several people miss and got a big block from Tory Dibb.

Then in the fourth quarter, an eight-play, 90-yard drive was finished on a six-yard option run by quarterback Danny Korpela. Korpela hit Antwan Battles with a 30-yard pass to key the drive.

Smith had to work for everything he got on the muddy Falcons' home field (20 carries for 60 yards) as the quick Crusader defenders read the Falcons pitch plays well. Korpela hit 13 of 24 passes for 197 yards and two interceptions.

"We just didn't quite know how to deal with them," Green said. "They really created match-up problems for us. A very, very good team."