The Wolves welcomed the Wittenberg-Birnamwood Chargers for the Wolves homecoming game on Friday, Sept. 23.
Manawa received the opening kick and moved the ball well, but then proceeded to fumble the ball away. Wittenberg took advantage of the Wolves miscue and punched it in to take an early 7-0 lead on a 51-yard completion from Dominick Anderson to Tyler Okerlund. The Chargers would add another first quarter touchdown on a 7-yard rumble by Cody Kreitzer to lead 14-0 after one period.
The Wolves defense stiffened in the second quarter, only allowing one Charger score on a 14-yard scamper by Mitch School. Okerlund would pound it in for the 2-point conversion.
Manawa’s special teams was a bright spot of the first half averaging 40 plus yards per punt attempt to keep the field position battle in their favor, but the Chargers would take a 22-0 lead into halftime.
The third quarter was the most evenly played of the contest. The two teams battled back and forth for field position until the Manawa defense finally made a play and forced and recovered a fumble to give their offense a spark. They responded moving down the field quickly and scoring on a 38-yard pass from Kenny Dearth to Wesley Krause. The 2-point conversion failed, but the Wolves narrowed the gap to a 22-6 deficit.
The Chargers would respond however with a solid drive of their own and get the points right back with a quarterback draw to score from 3 yards out and end the quarter with a 28-6 lead.
Wittenberg would add on in the fourth with a 4-yard plunge from School.
Manawa would score one final time on a beautifully executed screen pass from the 24 yard line. Kenny Dearth would draw in the defensive line and Kyler Heimbruch would do the rest to get it to the end zone to make the score 36-13.
The Chargers final blow would come in a big way as Logan Hickman would add to his game high 260 yards with a 73-yard touchdown dash to make the final score 43-13.
The Chargers rushing attack was too much for the Wolves defensive unit as they racked up 445 yards on 54 attempts compared to Manawa’s effort of just 109 yards on 29 attempts. Manawa had four pass completions for 78 yards compared to just two completions for 76 yards for the Chargers.
The Wolves drew nine flags for 90 yards but only one turnover. Wittenberg had only four flags for 45 yards but did have three giveaways.