Brown Deer survives West's late rally

Brown Deer - New Berlin West running backs Dylan Wiese and Bryan Watson led a strong rushing attack at Brown Deer Friday night, but the Vikings just fell short in Al Moroder's head coaching debut.

The Falcons, one of the better teams in the East Division, held off a last minute charge by West and squeaked out a 20-14 victory.

The offense rushed for 204 yards, 109 by Wiese, as the Vikings played well in their first action using the option offense.

"It all starts with the O-line," Moroder said. "If we continue to block as well and stay focused on what we ask the offense to do. It's nice for them to see their hard work payoff."

The Falcons led 20-7 on running back Jordan Smith's second touchdown of the game with 29 seconds left in the third quarter, but the Vikings bounced back.

Running back Bryan Watson scored on a 1-yard run and Nathan Henrichs booted the extra point to cut the lead to 20-14 with 11 minutes, 52 seconds left in the game.

The Vikings then threatened in the final minute, but quarterback James Fortier's fade pass in the end zone to wide receiver Cham Wijenayake was broken up. Wijenayake earlier in the drive made a clutch fourth-down catch to keep the drive alive.

Brown Deer then ran out the clock in the final two minutes.

"(I) think we're headed in the right direction," Moroder said. "A couple plays here and there and things might have been a little different.

"We competed well and the kids knew they lost to some tough competition."

The Falcons scored on a 1-yard run by quarterback Drew Worth to open the scoring 5:01 into the game. Less than two minutes later, Watson scored from 3-yards out to tie the game and that's where it stood at halftime.

Smith then scored twice in the third period on runs of four and 15 yards. Jerry Giles kicked his second extra point, but the Falcons failed to convert a two-point try after Smith's final score.

Moroder was also impressed with his defense.

"The defense had two stops within our 25-yard line," he said. "I was happy to see the kids played physical and they worked together."

Defensive back Trenton Krickeberg had a big interception in the first half that stopped the Falcons from scoring and pulling away.

"We also had a touchdown by Scott Reichel called back in the first quarter because of a block in the back," Moroder said.

Brown Deer coach Rob Green was impressed.

"They (the Vikings) were a young team a year ago but they had a good varsity reserve and this new coach that they have has brought a sense of discipline, which really helped them," Green said. "They made us work, which was good to see. It gave us a sense of some things that we could work on."

- Tom 'Sky' Skibosh