Plymouth through, around Port

Last Friday wasn’t the senior night or home football opener Port Washington High School had hoped for.
Plymouth ran the ball through and around the Pirates, and their top running back got hurt in a 21-0 loss.
Plymouth’s Kellan Mella, a long and lanky quarterback at 6 feet, 3 inches and 190 pounds, ran 23 times for 171 yards and three touchdowns.
The Pirates had 86 yards rushing.
“It’s high school football. You’ve got to be able to run the ball and stop the run,” Port coach John Bunyan said.
 Just as in Port’s prior week’s 19-6 defeat at New Berlin West, the statistics weren’t all that one-sided. Plymouth finished with 261 yards to Port’s 219. The Panthers had 12 first downs to the Pirates’ 11. Port even ran 57 plays to the Panthers’ 45.
But the Panthers made enough plays when they had to.
The game started off with a bang for Port. Patrick Lippe dove forward to catch a bomb for a 27-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage. Port’s 48-yard drive stalled at Plymouth’s 16-yard-line, and on fourth and six the Pirates tried a field goal.
Plymouth blocked it, and eight plays later Mella broke a run down the right sideline for a 47-yard touchdown.
The Panthers blocked a punt on the Pirates’ ensuing possession, but Port’s defense held. Matt Esselmann knocked away a pass on fourth and nine from the Pirates’ 29.
After three plays yielded two yards, Port punted again. Plymouth then went on a 12-play, 69-yard drive that ended with a Mella two-yard score.
On the drive, penalties helped put Plymouth into third and 17 from their own 47, but that’s when Mella completed his only pass of the night, an 18-yarder to Jack Luedtke.
Port got worse news later in the quarter, when running back Nate Kasdorf went down with a knee injury and did not return. Kasdorf had nine carries for 36 yards at the time and is Port’s top offensive weapon.
“It’s a big blow. I’m hoping that his knee’s all right,” Bunyan said.
Port managed a late drive in the first half. Lippe caught a ball on his knees on a rollout pass from quarterback Nate Uselding for 10 yards on fourth and six that put the Pirates at the Panthers’ 29-yard-line, but the drive stalled three plays later as the half ended.
Plymouth took the second-half kickoff and drove 65 yards on six plays for the game’s final score. Mella blasted up the middle for the final 35 yards.
Port responded with a 59-yard drive that stopped on Plymouth’s 16 when a pass on fourth and six fell incomplete.
While Plymouth moved the ball effectively enough on offense, rushing for 242 yards and gaining an average of 6.2 yards per rush, Port struggled to regularly get first downs. The Pirates averaged 2.5 yards per carry. Lippe couldn’t pull in a first-quarter bomb that would have likely gone for a touchdown, and Uselding had several passes batted down.
“They’ve got some big boys up front that manhandled us a little bit at times and just grinded it out, so it’s a credit to them,” Bunyan said.
“We had some big plays, did a few good things, but we’ve definitely got to improve up front. Obviously, we want to be better than where we’re at right now and keep working and keep improving.”
Backup running back Lleyton Allen had 23 yards on 12 carries. Lippe caught seven balls for 90 yards. Uselding went 11-for-23 passing for 133 yards.
Port honored its four seniors: Kasdorf, Angel Diaz, Jackson Saffran and Lucas Schumacher.
On Friday, Port plays at 1-0 Sheboygan Falls.