Star wide receivers deliver one more time

By MITCH MAERSCH

Ozaukee Press staff

Port Washington High School graduate Patrick Lippe and Cedar Grove-Belgium’s Sam Peiffer are used to catching touchdown passes at the last second, and that didn’t change at the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association All-Star games Saturday in Oshkosh.

Lippe caught a 14-yard game-tying touchdown pass on a corner route on fourth and goal for the Large School North team with 2 minutes, 43 seconds to play. The extra point made it 21-20, and the defense held twice to secure the victory.

It was redemption after the play didn’t work earlier in the game.

“When it was fourth down, we saw the coverage. We called time out. I said run the play. I’ll hit the corner, and it’s going to come to me,” Lippe said.

The defensive back stayed with Lippe the entire time, but the Pirate star made the play.

“He was right with me the whole way. It was a perfect pass. I just went up and grabbed the ball,” he said. “He probably just missed it.”

Lippe landed in the end zone with the score that knotted the game at 20.

“It was awesome. It was kind of an electric feel, kind of like a dream,” he said.

He finished the game with four catches for 46 yards and a score, and he made one tackle.

Lippe is accustomed to late-game heroics. He cut to the middle and caught a three-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone on the last play of regulation in a level 2 playoff game at Whitefish Bay in a 20-14 overtime loss last season.

Peiffer’s Small South School team lost, 25-7, but he stood out, catching a 28-yard touchdown with 13 seconds left in the first half.

“As time was running out we wanted to take a shot because we hadn’t really all game. I told Beau (Kopp of Cuba City), the quarterback, to just throw it up wherever I was and I got it,” he said.

Peiffer got open, Kopp threw it and Peiffer caught it, getting hit by the safety as he came down.

Peiffer ended the day with three catches for 49 yards, and he returned a kick and a punt.

His last-second score was nothing new. In last season’s playoff opener at home, Peiffer caught a three-yard game-winning touchdown pass with less than 10 seconds left to beat Mineral Point, 36-32, on essentially an audible. He and quarterback Logan Arrowhead surveyed the defense, then glanced at each other. Peiffer ran a quick slant, got interfered with and still caught the ball and fell into the end zone.

Port grad J.D. Brahm also played in the game and registered one assisted tackle. He played his natural position of linebacker in the first half but was moved to defensive end in the second half when a fellow linebacker got a cramp.

“I never played it before,” he said. “It was interesting.”

Brahm made the quarterback notice he was there.

“I did hit him once,” he said of Charlie Smith from Arrowhead. “I laid a hit on him and he still threw a touchdown pass.”

The two will continue to face off in practices next year playing for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Lippe said it was great having a fellow Pirate on the team.

“Having him there was awesome, especially since we went to high school together and are great friends,” he said.

Lippe, who will play for UW-Whitewater next season, roomed with fellow wide receiver Jackson Warren from La Crosse Central, who will play at Northern State in South Dakota.

Peiffer roomed with his future college roommate, Christian Powell from University School of Milwaukee. He played defensive end but Peiffer said he is switching to tight end at Northern Michigan.

Brahm roomed with Ashwaubenon running back Andrew Pludeman.

All three players said they formed bonds quickly with their new teammates and shared in the dreaded two-a-days to get ready for a game in just one week. Some were former rivals and others were from faraway places across the state.

“A lot of guys I got pretty close with — relationships that will last,” Peiffer said.

“The first couple of days it was a little weird. You don’t know any of these people The third, fourth and fifth days we started building relationships,” Lippe said.

“I didn’t really think I was going to enjoy it because I didn’t know anyone,” Brahm said. “After just a few days, we formed a brotherhood.”

The week and games, however, were about more than football. They served as fundraisers for Children’s Wisconsin hospital in Wauwatosa. Each player from the six teams — north small and large, south small and large and eight-man — raised money during the last few months.

Brahm raised $880, Lippe $2,050 and Peiffer $2,075 for the hospital.

One patient, Carson Molle, 19, gave a speech to all the teams about mental health.

“It was super cool. He told a story of how it related to football. It touched everyone’s heart,” Lippe said.

Brahm said it was an “amazing story.”

Peiffer said, “It’s something I’m extremely grateful to see and hear stories about Children’s and everything they provide.”

For Lippe and Brahm, it didn’t hurt to win their final prep football game, either.

“It was an intense game. It might have been one of the most intense games I’ve ever been in, in high school,” Brahm said.

“It was a fantastic way to cap off the high school career,” Lippe said.