GREEN BAY – As Kingston Allen walked off the field after the Green Bay Notre Dame football team’s 42-30 win over De Pere at Stock Family Stadium on Aug. 29, one of his teammates had a simple message for him.
“Good game, Kingston.”
Indeed, it was a good game for the running back. Very good.
If there were any worries about the 6-foot-2, 190-pound junior taking the reins in the backfield from former standout Christian Collins — and there were zero concerns inside Notre Dame — he has eased them during the first two weeks of the season.
One game after rushing for 251 yards and scoring four touchdowns, Allen scored all five of Notre Dame’s TDs on offense and rushed 37 times for 348 yards against what has been a stingy De Pere defense since the start of last season.
“We talked all week about making sure we were setting edges,” De Pere coach Ben Strickland said. “I thought for the most part we did it. But it was that secondary inside gap that he did a great job of, once he felt like there was that, he got vertical right away and got downhill.
“The guy has got phenomenal speed. Hard to catch in the open field. He gets a crease, and he is gone.”
Allen scored on a 4-yard run with 9 minutes, 31 seconds remaining in the second quarter to tie the game at 7.
He scored on a 2-yard run a few minutes later to put his team up 14-7.
When De Pere quarterback Holden Woodfill connected with Sam Robb for a 29-yard TD to give the Redbirds a 17-14 advantage with 7:45 left in the third quarter, Allen responded on the first play of the ensuing drive with an 82-yard TD.
After another TD pass by Woodfill gave De Pere back the lead late in the quarter, Allen started the fourth with a 33-yard score to put Notre Dame up 28-24.
He sealed the game with a 35-yard TD with 2:09 remaining.
“This is exactly how I wanted it to play out,” Allen said. “I have trust in my line, and I don’t feel like they are much worse than last year, if not better. I feel like the way I’m hitting the holes and the way Christian taught me is working out just fine for me.”
It would be one thing if Allen and his teammates were doing this against some of the porous defenses in the Fox River Classic Conference-South.
But he’s done it against a Kaukauna squad that was predicted to win the Fox Valley Association and a De Pere team that should finish in the top half of the FRCC-North.
“He’s had obviously a great start,” Notre Dame coach Michael Rader said. “I mean, you compare him to Christian the first two games last year, Kingston is way ahead just in terms of yardage.
“But what I like is that the way we need him to play is the way he is playing. He is falling forward when he’s getting hit. Christian would take a little bit better contact than Kingston, but Kingston took that as a challenge and is doing a really good job until he gets those opportunities to break free. You saw that a couple times tonight.”
Another close game until the end for Notre Dame-De Pere
This was the 16th time since the FRCC was formed in 2007 that the Tritons and Redbirds have played.
Eight of the first 15 meetings were decided by seven or fewer points, and the previous four games entering the night were by four or fewer.
It was the same throughout most of this one until one play in the opening minute of the fourth quarter swung the momentum.
With De Pere trailing by four points, Woodfill made his only big mistake of the night. He threw an interception in his team’s territory to Notre Dame junior Jonas Berndt, who returned it for a pick-six and a 35-24 lead.
Woodfill threw for 160 yards and three TDs before being injured and replaced by sophomore Ryland Nowak.
“You keep another team in the game, and you keep them and keep them, and then you get that quick turnaround,” Rader said. “That’s when you, hopefully, see the sails deflate a little bit.”
De Pere cut the deficit to 35-30 on a TD pass from Nowak to Robb midway through the fourth quarter, but Allen made sure it wouldn’t get any closer.
“They made more plays than we did tonight,” Strickland said. “But at the same time, I told our kids that I was proud of their resilience and how they battled regardless of what happened.
“I told them, this is a good football team. Plays are going to go that way, but how (do) you bounce back? I liked throughout the course of the game how the offense responded. The defense got stops when we needed them at times, and not getting down on ourselves when we had to go back out there. Would have liked to have seen a couple more plays go our way, but you have got to tip your cap to them.”
Green Bay Notre Dame on verge of matching program history
The Tritons’ win over the Redbirds was their 16th straight.
With a victory at Sheboygan North in Week 3, Notre Dame will tie the program record for most consecutive wins since joining the WIAA in 2000.
The Tritons went 14-0 to win a state title in 2003 and then won the first three games of the 2004 season before a loss at Sheboygan South ended a 17-game winning streak.
“It’s not something we are focusing on,” Allen said. “We are focusing on the next game. It’s not the winning streak that matters. That’s in the past. We are focused on the winning streak that we are about to have, the winning streak to lead us to state.”
Green Bay Preble wins again
The Hornets beat Appleton East 34-7 to improve to 2-0 in Brad Boockmeier’s second year as coach.
They already have won more games than in any of the last three seasons.
Preble went 1-8 in both 2023 and 2024 and didn’t win a game in 2022.
The road is about to get far more difficult with back-to-back contests against Bay Port and West De Pere, but it’s been a great start to build on.
Bay Port again struggles to score against Kimberly
Bay Port hasn’t had much of a problem putting up points in recent seasons, except when it plays Kimberly.
The Pirates’ 23-7 loss to the Papermakers on Aug. 28 was the third time in the last three years it has been held to two or fewer touchdowns against Kimberly, following a 17-14 loss in 2023 and a 35-14 defeat in 2024.
It’s the only three times in Bay Port’s last 40 games it has been held to 14 or fewer points.
The seven points also were the fewest it has scored in the regular season since a 26-7 loss to De Pere on Oct. 16, 2015.
The latest defeat to the Papermakers might be the most frustrating, simply because of how many opportunities Bay Port had to put up points.
It turned the ball over on downs at the Kimberly 2. It turned the ball over again on downs at the Kimberly 4.
It got worse.
Down 16-7 with 5:28 remaining, it fumbled at the Kimberly 1 and watched Chris Thao scoop the ball up in the end zone and return the fumble untouched for a TD.
“Our defensive staff does an unbelievable job of preaching pursuing the football,” Michalkiewicz told the Appleton Post-Crescent. “We had a huge red zone stop in the first half that kept points off the board, and that doesn’t happen unless you have 11 guys believing in what they’re doing. Super memorable play, but those things don’t happen by accident.”
Michalkiewicz has continued to be Bay Port’s kryptonite in recent years.
He is 6-0 against the Pirates since the alternate spring season in 2021, with two wins coming while at De Pere and the last four at Kimberly.
How impressive is that? Bay Port has gone a combined 45-8 against the rest of its opponents during the stretch.
There is some good news for the Pirates. They lost to Kimberly in Week 2 last season in what was their worst game of the year, only to end the season by winning the program’s first state championship.
Perhaps there will be a repeat in store in a few months.
Defense leads Ashwaubenon to first win
After allowing 34 points in a season-opening loss to Oshkosh North, the Jaguars made life miserable for Manitowoc in a 20-0 win in Week 2.
It was Ashwaubenon’s first shutout since a 35-0 victory over Sheboygan South in October 2018.
There were several notable performances on defense for a unit that had eight sacks against Manitowoc.
Senior linebacker Jameson Stewart had 11 total tackles and two sacks, junior defensive end Seneca Nooyen had six solo tackles and three sacks, and senior linebacker Oshae Champ added two sacks.
Difficult start for Green Bay West
The Wildcats were in contention for a playoff spot late last season in part because of their offense, including topping the 30-point mark in two of the first four games.
The big question entering 2025 was whether they could match the production without quarterback Sam Hemery or wide receiver Dakotah Montez leading the way.
It’s still early, but West has scored just eight points in its 0-2 start. It was blanked in a 13-0 loss at Omro in Week 1 and lost 20-8 at Peshtigo in Week 2.
The Wildcats were held to fewer than 13 points just one time last season while averaging 18.6 points per game.
Crivitz has top performance in the state
Crivitz beat North Fond du Lac 75-0, the second time in 12 years it has scored 75 points in a game.
The Wolverines rushed for 257 yards and eight TDs and averaged 7.8 yards per carry. The defense recovered four fumbles and returned two for TDs.
The 75 points is the most scored in a single game by any team in the state the first two weeks of the season.
Crivitz is 2-0 out of the gate for the second straight year. Before that, it had not won its first two games since 2007.
Week 2 scores
Green Bay Notre Dame 42, De Pere 30
Kimberly 23, Bay Port 7
West De Pere 33, Kaukauna 9
Pulaski 42, Hortonville 7
Ashwaubenon 20, Manitowoc 0
Green Bay Preble 34, Appleton East 7
Stoughton 40, Green Bay Southwest 13
Peshtigo 20, Green Bay West 8
Manitowoc Roncalli 36, Green Bay East 12
Luxemburg-Casco 35, Appleton Xavier 7
Menominee (Michigan) 49, Marinette 13
Seymour 28, Two Rivers 8
Wrightstown 10, Shawano 8
Southern Door 17, Shiocton 14
Fond du Lac Springs 28, Oconto Falls 14
Fox Valley Lutheran 35, Denmark 0
Kewaunee 20, Brillion 0
Bonduel 33, Coleman 12
Chilton 6, Oconto 0
Antigo 54, Sturgeon Bay 6
Crivitz 75, North Fond du Lac 0
Merrill 30, Crandon 20
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay Notre Dame football beats De Pere for 16th straight win, plus Week 2 takeaways
Reporting by Scott Venci, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
