Football: Dickelman, Hawks shine in rout of GB East

SHAWANO — The Shawano Community High School football team put on a show in its 50-6 Bay Conference rout of Green Bay East on Friday, giving family members plenty to cheer about on parents’ night.

Senior Brayden Dickelman led the charge on offense, rushing for over 300 yards and four touchdowns in the first half.

Junior Gage Timm threw a touchdown pass to sophomore Elliott Lowney and freshman Arland Dillenburg capped the lopsided win with a pair of rushing touchdowns in the second half.

Not to be outdone, Shawano’s defense was stifling, spending much of the evening in the Green Bay East backfield to help the hosts earn their second straight win.

The Hawks received the opening kickoff and began driving down the field behind Dickelman. A trio of penalties slowed the drive before Shawano eventually fumbled.

“Some of our slow start tonight could have been the fact that we felt that we were the better team and we’re not quite sure how to handle that yet and that’s part of the growing process as a team and program — how to handle winning,” said Shawano coach Al Tomow. ” I thought we learned how to compete, we learned how to win and now we need to learn how to handle winning and that’s the next step.”

The Hawks’ defense forced a punt on East’s first drive, giving the offense great starting field position.

The host’s fourth penalty pushed the ball back to Shawano’s own 48, but on the next play, Dickelman broke free for his first rushing score.

After another GBE punt, the Hawks went on a long, nine-play drive, culminated by a 19-yard touchdown run from Dickelman.

The Red Devils had their best scoring opportunity in the first half on their next drive, as quarterback Alex Schlag broke free on a scramble. But Shawano senior Ben Carroll never gave up on the play, sprinting from nearly one sideline to the other to catch Schlag at the 1-yard line.

The play proved to be big, as Shawano forced and recovered a fumble on the next play.

“We really talked before the game about trying to shut them out and I saw that he broke free and I just didn’t want him to score. I literally did everything I could to catch up to him and ended up catching him. Then we got the turnover, so it turned out really nice. We played really well defensively.”

After a holding penalty pushed the Hawks’ offense back to their own 2, Dickelman busted free for a 98-yard score to increase the lead to 20-0.

While Dickelman was able to break several tackles on the night, he also was paved some big lanes to run through behind an offensive line of seniors Jagger Theis, Shad Krueger, Keith Tourtillott and Ben Smits and sophomore Jackson Smits.

“They did great and looked really good tonight,” said Dickelman of the offensive line. “I’m glad they gave us such a big first half as a team so we could get some of the younger guys in who didn’t play last night.”

The JV game was cancelled Thursday, so Tomow was more than willing to insert some junior varsity players into the lineup in the second half.

The Shawano defense kept the momentum going on the next possession, as junior Trace Yeager started the drive with a tackle for loss before sophomore Andrew Popp recorded a sack. On the third play of the drive, Timm picked off a pass and returned it to the Red Devils’ 19-yard line.

After a holding penalty moved the Hawks back to the 21 on second down, Timm hit Elliott Lowney with a pass, and the WR eluded a would-be tackler to get into the end zone and up the lead to 27-0.

Shawano’s defense looked to force a three-and-out on the ensuing drive, but the hosts were flagged for roughing the punter. The Red Devils picked up a couple more first downs before a trio of pass breakups and a tackle for loss by senior Nick Sherman turned the ball over on downs.

On the third play of Shawano’s next drive, Dickelman put an exclamation point on his monster night with a 57-yard touchdown run and then a two-point conversion run to make it 35-0.

Shawano’s defense finished off its shutout in the first half after Yeager registered a tackle for loss and Tourtillott sacked the opposing QB.

Green Bay East scored its lone touchdown on the first offensive play of the second half.

Despite most of the Hawks’ starters sitting the second half, the offense continued to roll with some of its junior varsity players.

Sophomore Carson Popp took over at quarterback and helped the Hawks put together several long drives. Dillenburg did most of the damage on the ground, with help from junior Kaleb Lowney and freshman Ashton Henning.

Dillenburg scored a touchdown late in the third quarter and about halfway through the final quarter to cap the game’s scoring.

The win pushed Shawano’s record to 2-1 overall and in the Bay. It marked the Hawks first home win since Oct. 7, 2017 and means the team needs just two more conference wins to lock up a postseason berth.

The Hawks will try and earn one of those wins on Friday on the road against New London.

“We just have to keep working hard and coach Tomow is always telling us that we aren’t done yet and that we still have more to prove,” said Dickelman. “We want to make the playoffs this year, so we need to pick up two more wins and keep working hard.”

Green Bay East 0 0 6 0

Shawano 13 22 8 7

First quarter

S: Brayden Dickelman 52-yard run (kick no good), 5:50

S: Dickelman 19-yard run (Ethan Schwitzer kick), 1:28

Second quarter

S: Dickelman 98-yard run (Schwitzer kick), 9:59

S: Elliott Lowney 21-yard pass from Gage Timm (Schwitzer kick), 7:38

S: Dickelman 57-yard run (Dickelman run), 2:15

Third quarter

GBE: Riley Jensen 65-yard run (kick blocked), 11:36

S: Arland Dillenburg 6-yard run (Kaleb Lowney pass from Timm), 2:05

Fourth quarter

S: Dillenburg 10-yard run (Schwitzer kick), 4:41

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