Port takes one on the chin

A marquee match-up for second place in the North Shore Conference turned into more of a bloodbath with the Port Washington High School football team limping out of Slinger on Friday night.

Already missing starting quarterback Adam Baierl for the fourth straight game due to a foot injury, the Pirates’ star running back Deron Spicer missed the game with a shoulder injury.

Their best all-around player, wide receiver, defensive back and kick returner got an injured neck and missed part of the game. Running back Mitchell Niemeyer, who was carving out a solid season with touchdown catches and a kickoff return for a score, injured his knee and could be out for the season. Cornerback Brandon Kelling got a concussion, and backup quarterback Ethan Baierl banged up his shoulder.

“We’ve got a little MASH unit going on,” coach John Bunyan said.

That added up to a 37-18 defeat. Slinger jumped out to a 20-0 lead by halftime.

“Credit to them. They’re a good football team. They’ve got a really good strong offensive line and they moved the ball on us running the ball,” Bunyan said.

The Owls scored on their first three possessions of the game. The Pirates nearly hung right with them, but couldn’t convert on two straight fourth downs.

On the first, Lippe took the snap tried an option pass that fell incomplete on fourth and 1. On the second, Lippe ran right on fourth and goal from the 5-yard-line, and a gang tackle knocked him out of the game until partway through the third quarter.

Lippe still managed to catch eight balls for 143 yards and two scores, including taking a slant to the house for 63 yards late in the game.

Lippe also threw for a touchdown, a 25-yarder to Devon Edwards, and led the team with 45 yards rushing.

Baierl went 13-for-26 passing for 183 yards and two touchdowns.

“We can move the football. We definitely can score. We had some good stuff,” Bunyan said.

But Port didn’t have the firepower to keep up, especially coming in short and when more started dropping.

“We’ve got some low numbers, so it’s hard. It’s just hard to execute and hard to get things done with the limited guys that we have,” Bunyan said.

For Slinger, Logan Homberg ran 11 times for 177 yards and two scores. Jaraed Bernarde ran 14 times for 80 yards and a score. Jared Lighthizer had 54 yards rushing and a touchdown on 11 carries.

Daniel Breuer went 8-for-12 passing for 109 yards and a touchdown, including two bombs that keyed first-half scoring drives.

Slinger moved to 5-1 in the NSC.

Port, now 4-2, hopes to get Adam Baierl back next week and will regroup to face 3-3 West Bend East in the homecoming game.

“We’re still a good football team. We were expecting to play a little better than we did today,” Bunyan said.