Port drops football opener

In a relatively evenly matched statistical game, the Port Washington High School football team couldn’t quite match New Berlin West on the scoreboard last Friday.
Port lost the season opener, 19-6, on the road.
Sophomore quarterback Nate Uselding went 12-for-15 passing for 110 yards. Patrick Lippe caught six balls for 55 yards.
Running back Lieyton Allen, who got the lead role since Nate Kasdorf was on a one-game suspension, ran 23 times for 41 yards, including a one-yard touchdown.
The Pirates ran more offensive plays — 48 to 44 — but had fewer yards, 248 to 164. Each team had 11 first downs.
Port had the ball deep in Vikings’ territory twice early in the game, but turned it over on downs both times.
“I was happy with the way we played for the most part. I think we needed to finish a little better than we did,” coach John Bunyan said.
Port was down, 7-0, at halftime but was in control of the game, Bunyan said. It moved the ball well with seven first downs.
The Vikings, which went 9-2 last season and have 14 seniors this season, scored on a playaction pass on their second offensive play.
Bunyan said the Vikings run an old-school single-wing offense that relies on misdirection. They ran for 189 yards, led by Andrew Van Zile’s 100 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries. Van Zile went 3-for-5 passing for 59 yards.
Bunyan said the Vikings’ running game kept his offense off the field.
“We never felt blown out or not in the game. We just couldn’t get the ball back,” he said. “Defensively, we wanted to perform better.”
 On Friday, Port hosts Plymouth, which beat Kettle Moraine Lutheran in the final seconds, 14-12, last week.