'It’s always our goal, it’s on our schedule': St. Mary's Springs football eyes state trip

FOND DU LAC – The Saint Mary’s Springs Ledgers football team is soon to embark on yet another months-long journey that will ideally result in hoisting a state championship trophy in Madison.

Last season, the Ledgers finished 11-2 overall and 6-1 in the Flyway (second place), getting to the state semifinals where they lost to Stratford in Waupaca, 20-14.

This year, Springs is projected to finish as runners-up in the Flyway to Mayville again, according to WisSports.net. The Cardinals have had the Ledgers’ number, head-to-head, in each of the past three seasons. The teams match up in Week 8 for what could be a potential conference championship game.

Noah Moul, a junior offensive/defensive lineman, returns as the Ledgers’ lone All-Conference representative. Moul was First Team All-Conference as a defensive lineman and Second Team as an offensive lineman last year.

“Our team is looking pretty good,” Moul said.

“I think that we’ll have a really successful season, this year. We should’ve had one last year, it just ended up short, so hopefully this year we can end up at Camp Randall. I’m hoping that I can make an all-conference team and for our team I hope that we can get our best shot at going undefeated. Not lose a game, make it to state this year.”

Springs opened last season by shutting out Lake Country Lutheran before a narrow victory over Darlington in Week 2. The Ledgers cruised through the rest of their schedule until a 27-17 loss to Mayville ended the regular season and Springs settled for a second place finish in the Flyway. The Ledgers continued their run of state semi-final appearances, making it now 14-in-a-row, but a streak of four consecutive state championship games came to an end.

There are good numbers in the program heading into 2023 and a good amount of varsity experience, with 28 letterwinners returning. However, just five starters are back on both sides of the ball and Springs will be looking for a new quarterback, top rusher, and leading receiver to replace Cullen King, Levi Huempfner, and Lucas Rameker, respectively.

“It’s part of the job that you have to do, it’s hard work to get them going again,” said head coach Bob Hyland. “But I am excited about it. We’ve got a lot of kids. We’ve got about 65 kids in the program, which is a lot for our school. We have an equal amount of seniors, juniors, and sophomores, and so we’ve got enough talent to have people in every position that are competitive.”

Along with Moul, Springs will also return another solid class of seniors eager to carry on the Ledgers’ legacy of winning.

“This really means a lot to me, the last ride,” said lineman Luke Schwartz.

“Senior year you want to, obviously, win it all. I have a lot of high expectations for our team coming back from a Level 4 Playoff loss last year. I think everybody is hungry to win this year. One of our biggest goals is to make a deep playoff run. Springs is known for their winning and I think the past couple years we’ve fallen short. This year, I think we need to take it all the way.”

Stepping up to play quarterback this season will be senior Max Bauer. Bauer completed 9-of-14 passes for 80 yards and two touchdowns in a backup role as a junior last year.

“I’m very excited to be out here with my boys,” Bauer said.

“We’re all looking forward to seeing what we can prove out on the field this year and it should be fun. Getting back to Camp Randall is obviously the number one goal, but we have to take it day-by-day and get better every day. I’m just looking forward to helping the team as best as I can.”

“Excited for a big senior year,” added Sam Lucas, who will be playing more of a role in the Ledgers’ passing offense this season according to Coach Hyland.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, just with our size. We’re not a very big team this year so we’ve got to make sure we know all the plays. Make sure we’re fast and know what we’re doing. The team goal is obviously a state championship. Personal goals for me, probably first team all-conference. (Being a senior leader) It’s a big responsibility. Getting the younger guys to know what they’re doing, making-sure they know their responsibilities, proper footwork, that kind of stuff.”

Senior split end/defensive back Jameson Ahern continued the trend in determined mindset that the team goal is undoubtedly another state championship appearance.

“We’ve had a great three days of practice so far,” Ahern said. “Just looking forward to the season. I’m excited to get into a routine, get into game weeks. The team goal is, obviously, finish the season at Camp Randall. It’s been a couple years since we’ve been there, but I think we’ve got the team. I think we can.”

Hyland confirmed that a trip to Camp Randall: “It’s always our goal, it’s on our schedule.”

“What we do, I don’t know,” Hyland said. “Because we’ve got our first two non-conference games that are real tough – when you talk Lake Country Lutheran and Madison Edgewood – real tough competition. That will tell what we do the rest of the year. We’ve got decent enough speed to be able to throw and catch the ball. Average size on the line. We’re not real big this year, but overall, real good speed.”

“But our goal is one – one at a time. The only thing that we’ve talked about or looked at is Lake Country Lutheran, and then after that game it’s ‘we’re 1-0 or 0-1. Look at the next week.’ We take it one at a time that way nobody looks ahead, so we never talk about anything other than the next game.”

To Ahern, it’s an honor simply to be a captain on the team he’s been watching since he was a young kid in the bleachers at Fruth Field.

“I also just want to be the best vocal leader I can be on the field, helping out the young kids and making them better so that someday they can be a captain too,” Ahern said. “It’s awesome. Since I was little, I was watching and going to varsity games on Friday nights seeing who the captains were, just hoping that one day that could be me. It’s surreal now that it’s here.”

Springs will be switching to a shotgun offense this season, something Hyland said he’s held off on transitioning to.

“We’re changing the whole offense,” Hyland said. “This is different for me because I delayed going out of the shotgun for years. Now we’re into the shotgun and it’s causing me some headaches. So we’re going to see what happens as we go along. There’s some kids that have to step up, I don’t really know who they are.”

Hyland said he doesn’t believe this will necessarily be a rebuilding year for the team.

“We don’t have to rebuild. We’ve got on the offensive line – probably, maybe three – at least three new starters. We’ve got Moul and Schwartz back, and that’s it on the offensive line. So, there’ll be three new starters, but they’ve got some pretty good talent.”

“We’ve got to rebuild our linebacker corps. We only really have two kids that played a lot there. We’re going to have probably two junior linebackers in there, and then we lost three out of four defensive backs. That’s where we’re really going to be looking at rebuilding. We’ve got kids in those positions, but how soon they come around is the question. I don’t know who’s going to step up.”

The Ledgers open their 2023 season on the road, August 18, at Lake Country Lutheran before returning home to take on Edgewood at Fruth Field the following week.

Contact Lance LeQue at LLeQue@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @LanceLeQue.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: St. Mary's Springs football 2023 sesaon preview