Waterford football's big second half buries Westosha Central

It wasn't exactly the happiest homecoming for the Westosha Central football team Friday night.

In fact, with visiting Waterford in control late in the game, the Wolverine student section was blaring "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey on a speaker so loud in the visiting bleachers that the game officials had to stop the game just to get them to turn it off.

It was that kind of night for the Falcons as Waterford overcame a 9-0 deficit and dominated the second half with 17 unanswered points in a 24-12 Southern Lakes Conference victory and the Kenosha News Game of the Week.

Westosha (4-3 overall) and Waterford (3-4) are tied at 3-2 in the conference standings, and they have two more games to clinch a playoff spot with a fourth conference victory.

Central was plagued by several offensive holding penalties that killed drives, and the offense struggled mightily in the second half, when quarterback Mason Juga threw all three of his interceptions.

It was an ugly final 24 minutes where the Central offense couldn't get much of anything going and the Waterford offense racked up most of its 329 total yards on a few big, game-changing plays.

"It all comes down to small things, too many penalties put us behind the chains," Central coach Jared Franz told his team. "Four of the six penalties were holds. We're trending in the right direction, but it's still not clean football. I thought we had a nice week of practice. I thought we were on a little bit of a roll in terms of getting better each week. It was a little step back this week, but the good news is we had that happen to us earlier this year, and we got back on track.

"We look forward to getting back on track."

A good start

The Falcons jumped out to a 9-0 lead thanks to a 9-yard touchdown run by Juga and a 30-yard field goal from Carter Klementzos.

Waterford quarterback Caiden Dessart, who finished 12 of 20 for 165 yards and two scores, cut the lead to 9-7 with a 50-yard touchdown strike to Carter Thompson. Central's Dallas Padgett later recovered a fumble in Wolverines territory to set up the Falcons in solid scoring position.

Klementzos struck again, booting a 23-yard field goal as time expired to give Central a 12-7 halftime lead.

"We had another drive where we were deep and would've liked to punch it in, but we got a field goal after a holding call," Franz said.

Shut out in the second half

Juga rolled right and fired a pass down the right sideline, but it was picked off by a diving Waterford defender on the Falcons' first drive after halftime.

Some nifty misdirection gave Waterford the lead. A fake run right turned into a counter left, and Wes Hotopp wasn't touched on a 34-yard touchdown for a 14-12 lead early in the third quarter.

Dessart found Mason Lusic on a crucial third-and-8, then a big run led to Beau Veit's 30-yard field goal and a 17-12 Waterford lead.

The Wolverines were able to stop Central on the next drive before embarking on an 85-yard drive, highlighted by Jax Pesch, who took a handoff to the left, then reversed fields for a 51-yard run down the left sideline inside the Falcons 20.

Dessart faked a handoff and hit Thompson again over the middle on third-and-10. The 6-foot-1, 210-pound receiver dragged a tackler at the goal line, reached the football out to break the plane for a 12-yard touchdown to give Waterford a 24-12 lead with 7:25 left.

"We didn't convert on third downs, we didn't move the chains, we couldn't quite get into a flow," Franz said.

Last chance

The Falcons' run game was stifled and Juga just couldn't catch a break. The ball slipped out of Juga's hand on a pass attempt and landed in the arms of a Waterford defender on a fourth-and-5 play with five minutes left in the game. The Falcons defense stopped Waterford on fourth down to get back the ball, but Juga was picked again when he tried to go deep.

The Wolverines ran out the clock.

Central was outgained 329 to 177 yards, and the Falcons mustered six first downs to Waterford's 13.

Juga finished 6 for 18 with 65 yards and three interceptions.

Landon Taylor racked up 68 yards rushing on 11 carries for the Falcons. Sentrell Watts had an interception for the Falcons.

Pesch led the Wolverines with 79 yards rushing. Thompson tallied four catches for 88 yards.

"I have nothing negative to say about our boys' effort, and I look forward to getting back on the practice field next week," Franz said.