Notre Dame holds off Neenah in wild shootout, 56-53, in overtime
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Kingston Allen had a brilliant day rushing the football against Neenah on Aug. 21.
His best play may have been as a decoy on a reverse that led to the Tritons' game-winning score in overtime in Notre Dame's 56-53 overtime victory over Neenah at Rocket Stadium.
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Allen, a Wisconsin Badgers commit, rushed for 464 yards on 39 carries and scored seven touchdowns in what may have been a career day for the talented senior.
With Notre Dame down 53-50 in overtime, Allen played the role of high-profile decoy perfectly, taking the direct snap, pitching the ball back to quarterback Jackson Bouthilet on a reverse with Bouthilet rifling a 25-yard touchdown strike to tight end Joey Massey to give the Tritons the win in walk-off fashion.
Allen said he approached the Notre Dame coaching staff in overtime and suggested the play.
"Right before that drive we ran a play similar to that where I didn't toss it to my quarterback and I saw that it was going to be open," Allen said. "We have that play in practice and practice it over and over. I go to my coach and I ask him, 'Can we run that play? I think it's going to be there.' I tossed it to [Bouthilet] and it was perfect. It was right there and Joey walked right into the end zone."
Said Notre Dame coach Mike Rader: "When we're snapping the ball directly to Kingston as much as we are, we're trying to get the quarterback involved in a different way, and that was a way to do it. It's really our normal naked concept just with a flip to the quarterback to just kind of choose the way that the ball gets to him."
Allen had touchdown runs of 45, 68, 90, 6, 59, 3 and 17 yards to power a high-octane Notre Dame offense.
Neenah's offense was just as potent, with senior quarterback Ashton VanBeek rushing for 265 yards on 26 carries with five touchdowns rushing and two more passing.
Neenah was down 36-22 early in the third quarter but erupted for 28 consecutive points to take a 50-36 lead in the fourth. Notre Dame had its own rally with Allen scoring on runs of 3 and 17 yards to tie the game and send it into overtime.
The Tritons won the coin toss and elected to play defense first. A Massey sack of VanBeek forced the Rockets to settle for a 29-yard field goal on their possession, setting up the final scoring play.
"You never know what's gonna happen next," Massey said. "We had like eight minutes left, we're down two scores ... just got to fight through that adversity. I was obviously really tired at the end of the game, but I just kind of man up and make the big plays when you need them. It was an all-around team effort."
Neenah coach Steve Jung said his team competed and did "a lot of nice things," but ultimately Notre Dame was able to escape with the win.
"Well, I think they're down after the game," Jung said of the team's reaction after the loss. "And we are as coaches too. But they competed like crazy. It was a super-competitive game. And [Notre Dame] just had a little bit more at the end of the game than we did. Maybe they made a few less mistakes than we made and that was the difference."
Ghosts, Irish, Terrors get big wins
Kaukauna and Freedom got big wins in Week 1, with the Ghosts crushing West Allis Hale 41-7 on the road and Freedom shutting out highly-ranked Lake Mills 40-0. Appleton West also pulled away to beat Green Bay East 40-18.
Axzil Eggert had 163 yards rushing and three touchdowns and Owen Henkel passed for 195 yards and two touchdowns in Freedom's win over the visiting L-Cats. Eggert scored on runs of 49, 33 and 13 yards.
Kaukauna quarterback Ryan Carrel had three rushing touchdowns and running back Muhammad Jobe added two scores on the ground in the Ghosts' victory. Laythan Hurst also had a 90-yard kick return for Kaukauna in the win.
Charlie Blevins scored four total touchdowns in Appleton West's home win over Green Bay East. He scored on an 88-yard kick return and also had touchdown runs of 48 and 3 yards. He added a 13-yard touchdown reception.
Bluejays suffer more than just defeat to Plymouth
Menasha had a tough fourth quarter in its 42-41 loss to Plymouth at the Banta Bowl in Appleton.
The Bluejays saw Plymouth erase a 21-point second-half deficit and take a 42-35 lead late in the fourth. Menasha got a touchdown pass from Paul Schmolinske to Shamir Senyange to put the team in position to tie or take the lead. Plymouth stopped the two-point conversion by tackling Schmolinske just short of the end zone, and he was injured on the play and left the field on a stretcher with a leg injury.
An onside kick by Menasha was recovered by Plymouth as the Panthers clinched the victory.
Schmolinske had a pair of touchdown passes to Senyange in the first half of 17 and 57 yards. Keonte Thigpen and Logan Bivens had touchdown runs of 25 and 54 yards with Bivens adding an 80-yard run in the third quarter.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Notre Dame holds off Neenah in wild shootout, 56-53, in overtime