Grafton parties like it’s 1997

It was bedlam in Grafton Friday night, and the high school football team had earned it.

It was 20 years in coming — before any of the players or their student fans who stormed the field were born.

That’s the last time the Black Hawks qualified for the postseason. Until Friday.

The Hawks needed to beat, of all teams, rival Port Washington to make the playoffs.

The Pirates turned a near blowout into a one-score game in the fourth quarter, but the Hawks did enough to prevail, 37-20.

The drought was over, and the Hawks did it on senior night in the final game of the regular season.

“It’s a great feeling to know that my senior class can bring it back, but it’s more the team. Hopefully, we can keep the momentum going into the playoffs,” senior quarterback Brady Ward said.

“Awesome feeling. Never felt anything like it before,” said senior tailback Caden Knauer, who stepped up as the workhorse for the injured Joey Giorgi.

First-year coach Jim Norris — whose only losses as a high school player came in the playoffs and who played on winning teams at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater — didn’t have much time to enjoy it, with his mind already shifting to the next game.

“No matter how great this is, you can’t really take this in until after the season. It’s not going to hit me until January or February, and then we’re in the offseason mode,” he said.

Grafton improved to 5-4 and Port, looking to improve its playoff seed, dropped to the same mark. The game helped the Hawks earn a home playoff game on Friday, while Port will be playing on the road.

“It was definitely frustrating. It did cost us a little bit because Grafton got the higher seed,” Port coach John Bunyan said.

“Our kids overall played hard. It was a good game back and forth.”

Up by 14 points in the second half, the Hawks extended the edge to 27-6 on a athletic defensive touchdown. Senior Hawk Heffner intercepted a pass and returned it 45 yards for a score.

“I knew that he was going to throw the ball and coach told me to play hook zone. I just batted the ball at the line, picked it, just did a little move and scored,” Heffner said.

“Game changer, momentum shifter and everything. He’s always around the ball,” Norris said.

The Pirates could have rolled over, but began to bounce back.

On the ensuing drive, Port drove 73 yards in less than five minutes, capped by a Jacob Lippe leaping touchdown catch that has nearly become a weekly occurrence. Quarterback Adam Baierl hit his target across the middle from 18 yards out.

The Hawks were still in the driver’s seat, but not for long.

On the next possession, Port linebacker Deron Spicer picked off a screen pass, setting up the Pirates near midfield.

Baierl hit Devon Edwards on a deep pass down the middle that took the ball to Grafton’s 3-yard line. Two false start penalties and a sack had Port with fourth and goal from the 15 early in the fourth quarter.

Baierl rolled right with Hawks on his tail and waited as long as he could before firing a ball to the back right corner of the end zone. Brandon Kelling came all the way across to be in the right place at the right time, and made the catch.

A Lippe run fell inches short for a 2-point conversion, but the Pirates had closed to 27-20 with 9 minutes, 15 seconds to play.

It was gut check time for the Hawks. Their offensive line gave Norris some advice.

“We just said put it on us, we got this. We’re dominating out front. They can’t do anything,” senior lineman Alec Davis said.

Norris said, “That’s what we did.”

An onside kick that didn’t travel the required 10 yards set Grafton up at Port’s 48-yard line. A holding penalty negated a 30-yard-plus run, but the Hawks were undeterred.

Knauer, who racked up 179 yards on 36 of his team’s 40 rushes, ran for 20, then seven, six and 18. A face mask penalty put the ball on Port’s 3-yard line, and Knauer took it in from there.

“We never had any doubt. We knew we were going to go back down and get a score,” Knauer said.

The Hawks’ defense forced a turnover on downs, and another six Knauer runs along with a quarterback sneak and Pirates’ personal foul helped set up a Calen Knauer 27-yard field goal to cap the game’s scoring with 21.8 seconds to go.

After the final play, Grafton’s students, some still half wrapped in blankets, ran onto the field to greet their team with hugs and handshakes jumping into one another’s arms and taking photos to savor the moment forever.

“My brothers never had this playoff (qualification),” sophomore left tackle J.P. Benzschawel said in referencing Wisconsin Badgers players Luke and Beau. “The crowd was amazing. It was awesome.”

“It’s a pretty incredible feeling,” senior linebacker Jacob Garza said. “There was a lot of anticipation coming up to this game. We knew this had to be the game for us.”

The Hawks managed to do something many teams haven’t this season: bottle up Spicer, who came in with more than 160 yards rushing in the last three games he played. Spicer had 11 carries for 36 yards.

“They’ve got good run defense and did some good things with him. We had some frustrations up front. They’re a good, physical team,” Bunyan said.

Baierl had 56 yards rushing on 13 carries, and went 5-for-12 passing with two scores and one interception. Lippe had two catches for 42 yards and was limited to 14 yards rushing on six carries.

Timely and frequent penalties hurt the Pirates. They had 11 for 73 yards.

Grafton started fast behind Ward, who connected with sophomore Dominic Voiland for a 18-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter that required breaking one tackle.

Baierl answered with a nifty 39-yard touchdown run down the right sideline, but the Hawks came right back. Ward hit Voiland down the deep middle for 48 yards, and then from 11 yards out for the score.

Voiland caught the ball, turned to break a tackle and took it in.

 No. 4-seeded Grafton on Friday hosts No. 5-seeded Luxembourg-Casco (6-3).

No. 7-seeded Port travels to No. 2 Plymouth (7-2).

“I’m excited to play them. They’re big up front. They like to run the football,” Bunyan said.