SEYMOUR – For one half, the Seymour High School football team hung in there with one of the best Division 4 teams in the state.
The second half was a different story.
Leading 12-7 at the half, the Thunder eventually saw that lead vanish in a 29-12 Bay Conference loss at the hands of the Winneconne Wolves – the No. 2-ranked team in the state.
With the win, the Wolves (9-0 overall, 6-0 Bay) won their second consecutive Bay Conference title.
The Thunder (7-2, 5-1) came into the last regular-season home game of the season as the No. 8-ranked team in the state.
“I have great respect for Winneconne – that’s a really good football team,” Seymour Coach Jason Bins said. “We battled with the best, but we need to reset moving forward [for the playoffs].”
Bins said he was proud of his squad – especially in the first half.
“That was probably the first time [Winneconne] had been challenged like that all season,” he said. “It was a great start, but we needed to finish better.”
After the Wolves took a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter, Thunder quarterback Cayden Staffeldt found Brandon Neppl on a 21-yard touchdown pass almost halfway through the quarter.
After the extra point attempt was blocked, Seymour led 7-6.
With 30 seconds showing on the first-half clock, Staffeldt threw his second TD pass of the quarter, this time to Xavier Salzman from 15 yards out to make it 12-7.
The 2-point conversion attempt failed.
After Seymour’s Jordan Thompson nabbed an interception early in the third quarter, a series of penalties pinned the Thunder deep.
With Seymour’s resulting punt on fourth down traveling only about 10 yards, the Wolves made it 15-12 a few minutes later before adding a pair of fourth-quarter TDs to put the game away.
“Those penalties we had there really hurt us – especially in a big game like this,” Bins said. “We gave Winneconne a short field there, and they took advantage of it. The momentum of the game shifted after that.”
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