In a season of redemptive championship games, Nicolet of Glendale, Wisc., defeated the Chargers of Sheboygan 21-15 to win the Boys DI HS state championship in Wisconsin.

The two teams had met before in Badgerland Conference play, with the Chargers eking out a 5-0 win. But this time, it was Nicolet that would come away victorious.

That earlier loss was a learning experience for Nicolet.

"That was something like the 7th game for the Chargers, and only our second," said Nicolet Coach James Davis. "We are dealing with younger athletes and we just weren't as experienced. We still felt we were evenly-matched teams, and the game could have gone either way. But we did learn from it and came up with a different game plan."

Namely, nullify the Chargers' hard-charging, up-tempo game by playing field position and controlling the tempo.

It worked well. Flyhalf Case Fleck, captain of the team although only a sophomore, led by example and was the guy who called the plays for the backline and off the scrum. 

"He just has a lot of rugby knowledge and understands what needs to be done," said Davis. Meanwhile, scrumhalf Jack Curley was a demon, covering the field making tackles, and sometimes popping up in unlikely places to make plays. Curely was named player of the game.

For the Chargers, it was a disappointing game. Coach Neil Mattek said his team looked a little tight in warmup, but still had chances to win it. No. 8 Dustin Setzer almost scored but the ball was lost in-goal. Nicolet rebounded with wing Max Kinstler and wing Bobby Watkins scoring tries, and flanker Peter Driscoll kicking two penalty goals for a 16-0 lead. (We updated the try-scorers after game tape was studied to confirm.)

The Chargers came out of the break fired up and junior Vincent Hoderny and Setzer scored to make it 16-10 with ten minutes to go. But the Chargers got into penalty trouble, and shorthanded by two players due to yellow cards, they couldn't cover the entire field, and Nicolet fullback Tyler Wright scored a huge try to make it 21-10. In the final two minutes Chargers seniors Josh Becker and Sean Mattek helped to set up a final try, but it wasn't enough.

"Congrats to James Davis," Mattek said of his rival coach. "JD had his boys ready out of the gate and they took it to us with relentless pressure on our backline and crushing rucks at the breakdown in the first half.  Nicolet put our boys on our heels big time in that first 20 minutes and we were never able to recover.  We hadn't seen that type of pressure since the Penn match and couldn't regroup in time."

For Nicolet, it was of course a day of big performances, but few more so than Driscoll, who kicked two penalties and a conversion.

"We didn't have a kicker all year," said Davis. "So I went to practice one day and said, 'we're leaving too many points on the field. We've got 40 kids here, somebody's got to be able to kick.' And Peter Driscoll showed up and became our kicker."

The youngster worked his way into the starting lineup with that skill, and Nicolet never looked back.

In DII, Madison, the Badgerland runners-up, beat Badgerland #1 Muskego 33-10 in a game that was 5-5 at halftime.