Falcons must beat Pewaukee to make playoffs

Hales Corners - The Milwaukee Brewers weren't the only team playing a must-win game Friday night.

South Milwaukee also had its back against the wall, but disposed of Whitnall a little more easily than the local baseball team. The Rockets wore down the host Falcons, 28-14, to improve to 5-3 overall and 4-3 in the Woodland Conference Black Division and clinch a playoff berth.

Whitnall, meanwhile, fell to 3-5 and 3-4 in conference play, but can still qualify for the playoffs with a victory at home against Pewaukee (6-2, 6-1 Woodland Blue) on Friday in the team's regular season finale.

"We will bounce back, I promise you that," Whitnall head coach Rob Leboeuf said. "And we will give Pewaukee everything they can handle."

Special ceremonies will also be held on Friday to mark the closing of the old Whitnall stadium and the groundbreaking for the new venue. City and school officials will be on hand and the evening will close with fireworks.

There were not enough fireworks for the Falcons in last week's game against the Rockets.

With 2:48 left in the first half, South Milwaukee broke a scoreless tie with a 7-yard run from running back Mat Tagye, but the killer for Whitnall came just a minute later when Tagye scored again on a 41-yard screen pass that exploited an overaggressive defense. A defensive battle was suddenly a 14-0 South Milwaukee advantage at halftime.

"The screen pass broke our back," Leboeuf said. "We had a blitz on, we should have checked out of it, we didn't, and they easily scored. If we don't give that up, things could have been a lot more interesting than they were."

The Rockets stopped the Falcons again to start the third quarter and gained a 21-0 edge on running back Trevor Stauner's 5-yard touchdown run.

On its next possession, Whitnall drove 63 yards to the South Milwaukee 2-yard line, where it faced a critical fourth down. A bad snap sailed over quarterback Luke Mentkowski's head and the Rockets took over on downs.

Whitnall scored its first points in the final quarter when the Rockets were forced to punt from their own 19-yard line. The Falcons blocked the punt, and Zach Sutton recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown.

However, any hope of a comeback was dashed when Stauner rumbled into the end zone again just two minutes later from 10 yards out.

In the waning minutes, Whitnall scored again on a 2-yard run from Travis Karweik.