Taking a bite out of the Knights

Two straight losses was more than plenty for Grafton High School’s football team.

The Black Hawks took it to Nicolet at home on Friday night, 28-7, to get back above .500 at 3-2.

The game turned late in the first quarter.

After taking the lead on the opening possession with a Brady Ward to tight end Caleb Buback 18-yard touchdown pass, the Knights used their inside running game to drive to the Hawks’ 2-yard line. But a fourth-down run was stuffed, and the Hawks took over at their own 1.

They wouldn’t stay there long. Ward launched a bomb down the right sideline to Bryson Clague, who caught it for a 33-yard gain.

One play later, Joey Giorgi zigzagged for 65 yards to the end zone, sending already excited crowd into a frenzy.

“We had a stretch called on that one, cut it up, found a much space as I could, man, cut around the field, had a nose for the end zone,” he said. “Big-time momentum swinger right there.”

Giorgi returned to form after being banged up in losses to Homestead and Whitefish Bay.

“It’s really nice having him back at 100%,” coach Jim Norris said. “He has some really special vision. He makes up for some offensive line mistakes.”

That goal-line stand and quick touchdown turned what could have been a 7-7 game into a 14-0 advantage.

“Insane,” linebacker Kyle Proefrock said of the stand. “Our defense went crazy. Everyone was screaming.”

“Defense,” said linebacker Hawk Heffner, “kind of does the same thing we do every week. We just make big-time plays.”

“Once we stuffed them,” defensive lineman Aaron Weisflog said, “we just had a pure ramp up after that.”

The Hawks weren’t done. The defense forced a three-and-out, and Dominic Voiland had a huge punt return to Grafton’s 48-yard line.

Another long pass to Clague put the Hawks in scoring position. On second and goal from the 10, Zach Weir dropped the shotgun snap, struggled to pick it up, finally did and fired across the middle to Voiland for the score.

“I got lucky there. Dom broke free. He was man-to-man, I knew was going to go to him,” Weir said.

“Right before the play I told him I was going to do a slant. It wasn’t planned out,” Voiland said.

Not much of that play went as planned.

“I thought he was going to get sacked,” Voiland said.

He had to slow down for a “kinda wobbly” pass and hung on as he went to the ground.

The Hawks held a 21-0 halftime lead.

Grafton forced a punt on Nicolet’s first possession of the second half, and then went to work from their own 31.

Eight plats and nearly four minutes later, Giorgi scored again on a 1-yard plunge.

The key play on the drive was a bomb down the middle to Clague. The sophomore, who already has a candidate for catch of the year after corralling a ball with his arms around a defender a few weeks ago, this time snagged the ball while a defender yanked him down.
“I stuck my hands out, it ends up coming to my legs and I actually kind of caught it between my legs,” he said. “Just whatever you can do to catch the ball, right?”

The Knights managed a touchdown run in the fourth quarter, and Grafton’s defense stuffed a second threat late in the game.

Norris still switches between Ward and Weir at quarterback, sometimes pitching to one, who has the option to run or throw.

“Both guys just bring totally different attitudes. They have such a unique skill set,” he said.

Ward also plays in the defensive backfield and knocked away two deep passes at the end of the first half.

“Our defense was being dudes out there,” Ward said.

Norris said Ward is “such a high performer with a high motor. We have to keep him on the field to be successful on Friday night.”

He said giving Ward a break from playing quarterback allows him to play 50 to 60 snaps on defense.

While Norris is the Hawks’ offensive mastermind, he credited coach Welden and the defense for Friday’s performance, especially in holding Nicolet’s read option offense in check.

“The defense was absolutely locked down,” he said.

Grafton plays at rival Cedarburg (1-4) on Friday.

Norris liked what he saw from his team’s preparation early in the week. After swatting at hundreds of bugs during practice, 30 players stayed back, working and refining their techniques.

“I haven’t seen that in Grafton but I saw it in Whitewater,” said Norris, a former University of Wisconsin-Whitewater player and coach.

“That’s the beginning of a championship program.”