Wittenberg-Birnamwood knocks Stevens Point Pacelli from unbeaten ranks

STEVENS POINT - Jack Stewart might have to open up his wallet and treat the Wittenberg-Birnamwood offensive linemen to a dinner in the near future.

And McDonald's might not suffice.

Not after the gaping holes he had to run through most of the night courtesy to a large entent of the interior of the line. Center Jarrett Nievinski, along with guards Matthew Thrun and Keegan Delforge.

Stewart rushed 22 times for 165 yards and a pair of touchdowns and Wittenberg-Birnamwood bounced back from its first loss to knock Pacelli from the unbeaten ranks, 22-20, at Community Stadium in Goerke Park.

On the vast majority of those carries he went untouched until at least five yards past the line of scrimmage.

"Our center of the line has been there for all four years now and they're all clicking now. They got all the kinks out over the four years and they really got it down," Stewart said. "It was just a hard-fought victory that we played. Everyone worked together."

Despite losing the battle of the trenches most of the night, Pacelli refused to give up its bid for perfection without a battle in the Central Wisconsin Conference-8 contest.

Held without a first down until 1:07 was left in the opening half, the Cardinals hung in the game and put themselves in a position to pull out a win.

A 1-yard touchdown burst by Xander Schmitz with 7:03 left in the fourth quarter brought the Cardinals within 22-20. Looking for the tie, quarterback Zach Zimmerman's pass to Nate Helms on the 2-point conversion fell incomplete in the end zone.

"We weren't really doubting our defense. We knew we were going to stop them. It was a just a matter of how hard we were going to stop them," Stewart said.

There was still plenty of time for the Cardinals to pull out a win.

After forcing the Chargers to punt on the next possession, Pacelli took over in W-B territory with 4:53 left on the clock and eventually drove to the 25-yard line. 

Facing fourth down and three with under three minutes left in the game, Zimmerman was stuffed short of the first down to hand the ball over to the Chargers, who ran out the clock.

W-B made one late stand on the defensive side of the ball and could breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate an inspired victory.

"We gave Zach Zimmerman the green light to take it when he sees it," Pacelli coach Drew Nelson said. "Zach got a bunch of our yards because of the natural athlete he is. He saw a hole and you take it and go. That's okay with me."

Thanks to its power rushing attack W-B never trailed in the contest.

If it wasn't Stewart racking up some serious yards, running mate Dalton Zeinert enjoyed a fair share of success toting the football. The senior halfback finished with 98 yards on 17 attempts.

The running back tandem had the easy part since the guys lining up in front of them were opening up some pretty large holes.

"That's our offense and that's what we do. We're going to ground and pound. That's the nature of our business," Chargers coach Bernard Holsey said. "I couldn't be more proud of (the offensive line). I love hearing someone say (the line) did a good job."

Off to its best start since 2010, it's back to the drawing board for the Cardinals.

With Weyauwega-Fremont up next on the schedule, Nelson made it clear everything will be done to correct what went wrong.

The goal is to make sure the sour taste of its first defeat doesn't linger for them.

"It wasn't always going to be roses. We'll learn from this and one loss this season isn't going to define who we are. We'll move on," Nelson said. "We're going to be okay, but we need to rally around each other and pick each other up."

Scott A. Williams can be reached at 715-345-2282, or by email at ssswilliam@stevenspoint.gannett.com. Find him on Twitter as @SPJScottWill

W-B  0  8  8  6  -  22

Pacelli  0  8  6  6  -  20

Second quarter

WB - Trevor Groshek 1 run (Jack Stewart run), 9:02

P - Garret Parks 15 pass from Zach Zimmerman (Xander Schmitz run), :06

Third quarter

WB - Stewart 5 run (Stewart run), 8:29

P - Daniel Mitch 28 run (run failed), 2:57

Fourth quarter

WB - Stewart 1 run (run failed), 8:37

P - Xander Schmitz 1 run (pass failed), 7:03

Individual leaders

Rushing: W-B -  Jack Stewart 22-165, Dalton Zeinert 17-98; Pacelli - Zach Zimmerman 11-70.

Passing: W-B - Trevor Groshek 4-9-1-48; Pacelli - Zach Zimmerman 9-21-0-58.

Receiving: W-B - Cory Fraaza 3-33; Pacelli - Garret Parks 4-21.

Records: Pacelli 3-1, 1-1 CWC-8; Wittenberg-Birnamwood 3-1, 1-1 CWC-8.