Sports

The Gillett Secondary School girls basketball team lost to Peshtigo 42-14 in a Marinette & Oconto Conference game Friday in Peshtigo.

Peshtigo (6-1, 5-0 M&O) built a 10-4 lead in the first quarter and was up 18-6 by halftime.

Nicole Rotter led Gillett (2-6, 2-2 M&O) with six points.

Amanda Majewski, Teja Tonn and Nicole Motkowski led Peshtigo with seven points each.

Gillett was set to face Southern Door (5-4, 3-2 Packerland) on Monday, but extremely cold weather led to the game being canceled.

Lena High girls fall to Gibraltar

The Lena High School girls basketball team lost to Gibraltar 50-23 in a nonconference game Saturday in Lena.

Kayla VanLanen scored 10 points to lead Lena (4-3, 3-2 Marinette & Oconto).

Lauren Kita’s 17 points led Gibraltar (6-3, 2-3 Packerland).

Suring takes early lead, tops Wausaukee

Kelsey School scored 14 points and Erin Fisher added 12 as the Suring High School girls basketball team beat Wausaukee 47-29 in a Marinette & Oconto Conference game Friday in Suring.

Suring (4-3, 3-1 M&O) used a 16-3 scoring advantage in the first quarter to take a lead it wouldn’t give up the rest of the way.

Crysta Clark led Wausaukee (0-7, 0-5 M&O) with eight points.

For a Green Bay Packers team that had to overcome mountains of adversity just to make the playoffs, it was hard to accept that they came up just one play short in a 23-20 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in a wild card playoff game Sunday at a frigid Lambeau Field.

After tying the game at 20-20 on a 24-yard Mason Crosby field goal with 5:06 left to play in the fourth quarter, the Packers allowed the 49ers to drive 65 yards and eat up the rest of the clock. Phil Dawson, the 49ers kicker, then hit a 33-yard field goal as time ran out for the 23-20 win.

It was a bitter loss for the Packers, who battled through a bevy of injuries and setbacks this season to make the playoffs, and their fourth loss to the 49ers in the last two seasons.

“It hurts,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “Yeah, it hurts.”

After a tough beginning to the season, the Gillett/Suring wrestlers are starting to come into their own.

However, the Tigers are still looking for their first victory.

“With those first matches, we were down in the dumps. We can’t start much worse than that,” first-year head coach Mitch Szwet said. “But I was glad to see that they didn’t quit, they didn’t back down and showed up with a workman-like attitude every day at practice. They’re ready to get better. They’re ready to put the work in, so we’re building.

“We’re not where we want to be as a team, but we’re moving in the right direction. … But we’ve got a pretty young team.”

It’s a young team indeed.

Gillett/Suring has just three seniors and a couple of juniors, but a strong sophomore class has been a valuable asset.

Heading into the always difficult Northern Exposure tournament at Merrill, Oconto Falls tri-head coach Marc Kinziger knew his team would have an uphill climb after sustaining a couple of injuries in the previous week.

The Panthers cruised in the first four rounds of the tourney before running into three solid teams and ended up placing eighth out of 24 teams during the two-day event Friday and Saturday.

“Eighth was about the best I thought we could have done,” Kinziger said.

Oconto Falls had two open weight classes – 182 and 195 – the entire tournament.

“During the holiday break we couldn’t get two guys to the right weight classes, so we were giving up 12 points off the bat, and with an inexperienced team, that hurts,” Kinziger said. “I’ve been coaching at Oconto Falls for 15 years and I don’t know how much longer before that, but I don’t remember ever forfeiting a weight class.”

Randy Berndt, owner of the U.P. Fly Angler, will discuss the lightly fished area of the western Upper Peninsula when the Oconto River Watershed Chapter of Trout Unlimited meets on Wednesday, Jan. 8.

The group will meet at 7 p.m. at Lone Oak Gun Club, located one mile north of Gillett on state Highway 32. Berndt’s presentation will cover how to locate the best waters for brook, rainbow and brown trout fishing, the most successful flies for the area, how to go about planning a trip, and essential safety equipment needed to fish the remote region.

“The western U.P. holds many opportunities for anglers,” Berndt said. “In addition to fine fishing, the western U.P. offers superb scenery and a chance to fish in solitude.”

Panthers girls remain undefeated

Undefeated Oconto Falls High School outscored Manitowoc Lincoln in every quarter en route to a 48-33 girls basketball win Saturday in Manitowoc.

McKenna Larsen led the Panthers (5-0, 2-0 Bay Conference) with 17 points. Carly Lemke added 13.

Alyssa Fischer led Manitowoc (3-5, 2-2 Fox River Classic) with 15 points.

^

Gillett splits games at Elcho tourney

Elcho’s boys basketball team took a three-point first quarter lead and then padded it each following quarter en route to a 42-32 win over Gillett on Saturday in the Elcho Tournament championship.

Jake Kasten was the only player in double figures for Gillett (3-6, 2-3 Marinette & Oconto Conference) with 13 points. Junior forward Dan Torres led the Tigers in rebounds with eight.

Jaeger Adams tallied 23 for Elcho (5-4, 3-2 Northern Lakes Conference).

A fourth-and-eight touchdown throw from quarterback Aaron Rodgers to receiver Randall Cobb with 46 seconds left to play put the Green Bay Packers ahead of the Chicago Bears 33-28 in a back-and-forth regular season finale Sunday at a cold and windy Soldier Field in Chicago with the NFC North championship on the line.

It was fitting that Rodgers (collarbone) and Cobb (leg), who both returned this game after missing weeks due to injury, connected on the game’s pivotal play, giving the Packers the win, the NFC North title and a home playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

“You see the heart that this team has, to go through what we went through all season and still have a chance to get into the playoffs,” Cobb said. “To have a game like we played tonight … we found a way to win the game. I think it speaks a lot about our team.”

Duane Rogatzki has graduated to college.

Coaching college football, that is.

After retiring in 2012 following 35 years as the head coach at Oconto Falls High School, Rogatzki switched roles and helped the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh football program this past season.

Rogatzki got to know Titans head coach Pat Cerroni through Rogatzki’s involvement with the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association all-star game. The annual weeklong event showcases the best high school seniors throughout the state and is held at UW-Oshkosh’s Titan Stadium.

After last year’s all-star game in July, Rogatzki got an invitation from Cerroni to attend his team’s early-season practices in August.

“They asked me to come down for two weeks to see if I like college football and just work with them and hang around and be with the defense,” Rogatzki said.

The Green Bay Packers’ roller-coaster season will continue for another week, despite a 38-31 loss Sunday to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the snow at Lambeau Field.

The loss would have ended the postseason hopes for the Packers (7-7-1), but the Chicago Bears (8-7) were embarrassed 54-11 by the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night. Detroit (7-8) dropped out of playoff contention with a 23-20 overtime loss at home to the New York Giants.

The Packers and Bears will play Sunday in Chicago with the NFC North title, and the playoff berth that comes with it, on the line. That game has been moved to a 3:25 p.m. start.

The Packers’ fate was nearly sealed as they raced the clock on the final drive Sunday, trailing 38-31.

The Packers entered the fourth quarter down by 10, 31-21, until a Mason Crosby 22-yard field goal cut the deficit to seven.