All four for the second season:

For the third time ever, all in the past nine years, all four local high school football teams have qualified for the postseason.

Two earned home games, one renews acquaintances with an old conference opponent and another is heading to take in the fall color from here to Minneapolis.

The other two times all four qualified was in 2018 and 2021.

Port earns a top seed

Undefeated Port Washington, ranked No. 1 in Division 3 in the Bound Wisconsin Football Coaches Poll after last week, got a 1 seed and hosts No. 8-seeded South Milwaukee (4-5) on Friday.

Port comes in as the inaugural Glacier Trails Conference champion.

“Our kids are locked in. We accomplished one goal. To us it’s a new season and a refocus of what we need to do,” coach John Bunyan said.

Port comes in with the state’s leader in passing yards. The coach’s son Jack Bunyan has gone 157-for-252 (62%) for 2,823 yards with 33 touchdowns, second in the state, and nine interceptions.

Kade Kintop is third in the state in receiving yards with 1,032. He has 51 catches and 11 scores. Aedyn Brownmiller has 35 catches for 778 yards and 10 touchdowns, and Kiya Sullivan caught 30 balls for 596 yards and eight scores. Mason Schwanz has 411 yards rushing and four touchdowns on 86 carries.

Linebacker Austin Knapp leads Port in tackles with 94. Defensive end ThiLar Goodman has 73. Port has recovered seven fumbles and made 10 interceptions, led by Kintop’s two.

“We’ve got to keep a 1-0 mindset. Nothing else matters except winning the game at hand, and being a senior this means everything to us right now. We will do anything to make it to Camp Randall,” Kintop said.

“Our football season starts now,” Knapp said. “We have five weeks of football left, and we have a lot more work to do to make it where we want to be.”

South Milwaukee’s stats were incomplete.

A possible rematch with No. 3-seeded Plymouth, which Port beat, 42-34 during the regular season, could be held in level 3 on Friday, Nov. 6.

Grafton heads to Greenfield

Defending Division 3 state champion Grafton got bumped up to Division 2 through the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s competitive balance initiative.

The Black Hawks (5-4) got a 6 seed and play at former Woodland Conference foe, No. 3 Greenfield (7-2). Grafton beat Greenfield during three of its four years in the Woodland. This will be the Hawks’ second game on grass this season.

Grafton is led by Jack Nelson, who has run for 851 yards and nine scores on 156 carries. Quarterback Hunter Klippel has run 62 times for 471 yards and seven scores. He has gone 103-for-178 (58%) passing for 1,444 yards with 16 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

Linebacker Jason Grunwaldt leads Grafton in tackles with 66. Linebacker Hudson Miller has 53. Defensive back Isaiah King has picked off three passes. Grafton has seven fumble recoveries and six interceptions.

“It’s a new season. It should be exciting,” Nelson said.

“I think coming into next week we know what it’s like to be down and what it’s like to come back up. Against any team, I think we can put up a good fight,” Hudson Miller said after last Friday’s 28-21 loss at Plymouth.

Greenfield’s Lucas O’Brien has gone 77-for-144 (53.5%) passing for 1,484 yards with 20 touchdowns and three interceptions. Jose Garcia leads in rushing with 105 carries for 624 yards and six scores. Peyton Briley has run 65 times for 359 yards and seven touchdowns. Treanor Madson leads in receiving with 27 catches for 708 yards and 13 scores.

Linebacker Dylan Alba has 76 tackles, one of four players with more than 60. Greenfield has 11 fumble recoveries and eight interceptions.

If the game comes down to a field goal, Grafton’s Ronan Byrnes has hit from 48 yards. For Greenfield, Madson’s longest field goal is from 22 yards.

CG-Belgium makes it No. 24

Cedar Grove-Belgium (7-2) qualified for the playoffs for the 24th straight season and got a 3 seed in Division 6. The Rockets host no. 6 Valders (4-4), a team they beat, 21-14, in the opening round of the 2024 playoffs.

Coach Dan Schreurs, who eclipsed 100 career victories this season, was hoping for a 2 seed and two home playoff games. The Rockets needed two of four teams to win other games, and only one did.

Valders lost to Howards Grove, 18-8, in the season opener. The Rockets beat the Howards Grove, 57-0, on Oct. 9.

“They’re definitely a better team than they were,” Rockets’ coach Dan Schreurs said.

Valders won five straight games but lost its starting quarterback. A running back took over the spot.

The Rockets outscored their opponents, 150-6, in the past five weeks, and have posted four straight shutouts.

Austin Knapp (no relation to Port’s player) leads the Rockets with 884 yards rushing and seven scores on 127 carries. Griffin Knight has run 44 times for 407 yards and six scores. Evan Halleman has run 85 times for 278 yards and five scores, and he has gone 25-for-51 passing (49%) with six touchdowns and four interceptions. Knight has eight catches for 117 yards and four scores. Knapp has eight catches for 105 yards.

Kicker Noah Peterson has made a field goal from 43 yards and had enough leg on a 48-yarder that slid outside the goalpost. Valders hasn’t attempted a field goal.

Cedar Grove-Belgium linebacker Josh Anzia has 85 tackles. Defensive end Noah Teunissen has 72 and defensive end RJ Griffin has 61. The Rockets have recovered five fumbles and made six interceptions.

Carson Wasmer leads Valders with 562 yards rushing and eight scores on 51 carries. Three players have more than 200 yards rushing. Brauden Lenz has gone 20-for-37 (54%) passing for 357 yards with five scores and two interceptions. Ethan Spindler has gone 16-for-46 (35%) for 126 yards with one score and five interceptions.

Linebacker Brody Mueller had 64 tackles. The Vikings have recovered five fumbles and made nine interceptions.

RLO to hit the road

Random Lake/Ozaukee (5-4) qualified for the playoffs in its first year of eligibility after being punished by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association for forming a co-op in an off-year of conference realignment. The Bison were barred from the postseason for two years.

The Bison’s reward is a 7 seed and a 323-mile trip to Saint Croix Falls (8-1). It’s about a five-hour, 30-minute drive and an hour northeast of U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, home of the Minnesota Vikings.

“Since they changed the matrix last year, it looks like there’s no region. The regions don’t really get taken into account anymore,” coach Cole Large said of the playoff pairings.

“It’s a unique opportunity to go play a team we never would face.”

Large said the team will leave school early on Friday and won’t stay overnight, instead returning early Saturday morning.

“We’ve got a coach bus so we’ve got a pretty comfortable trip,” he said.

The Bison are bringing food along so they don’t have to stop along the way.

Large said they are shooting to arrive between 5 and 5:30 p.m., a little earlier than normal for a road game.

The Bison aren’t the only team in the Big East Conference making long drives. Oostburg is traveling four and a half hours and 270 miles to play Durand-Arkansaw. In other football travel news, Waukesha West travels three hours and nearly 200 miles to play at La Crosse Central.

The Bison’s trip is longer than if it went to Fredonia, Iowa, and it’s the second trek Ozaukee has had in the last two sports seasons. The baseball team’s opening regional game last summer was against the Tri-County Penguins in Plainfield, half an hour south of Stevens Point. It was a 115-mile, two-hour, 15-minute drive for a playoff game in which every team qualifies for the postseason.

Colton Dybul leads the Bison’s run-heavy offense with 779 yards and five touchdowns on 141 carries. Jeffrey Stefanich has 757 yards and seven scores on 122 carries, and he has gone 39-for-91 passing for 400 yards with two touchdowns and nine interceptions. Cooper Arndt has 12 catches for 127 yards and a score.

Dybul has 79 tackles at linebacker. Stefanich has 68 and Arndt has 62, both also at linebacker. The Bison have recovered seven fumbles and made eight interceptions.

The Saints feature a passing offense. Brett Sladky has gone 101-for-151 passing for 1,880 yards with 26 scores and three interceptions. Drake Petersen has 57 catches for a state-leading 1,104 yards and 15 scores. Micah Nwachukwu leads in rushing with 84 carries for 805 yards and 12 scores.

Linebacker Chase Steffen has 83 tackles. The Saints have seven fumble recoveries and have made 11 interceptions.

For all the brackets, visit https://tournaments.wiaawi.org/FB2026.