Tom Dombeck predicts Reedsville football's WIAA D7 Level 4 game vs Black Hawk/Warren
And then there was one.
The undefeated Reedsville Panthers are the last football team standing in Manitowoc and Sheboygan counties.
No. 1 seeded Reedsville faces No. 2 Black Hawk/Warren (Ill.) on Friday in the WIAA Division 7 Level 4 contest.
The winner advances to Camp Randall Stadium on Nov. 16 for the D7 state championship.
The Panthers have been to Madison once before, winning the D7 title in 2021 while the co-op was D7 champions in 2019. Black Hawk won the same title in 2013 and 2018 as a standalone program.
These two programs actually met in Level 3 in 2021, with Reedsville prevailing 30-12.
In Level 3 last Friday, Reedsville blanked No. 2 Randolph 20-0 while Black Hawk/Warren routed top-seeded Potosi/Cassville 36-0, avenging an earlier 41-20 defeat.
There is one certainty though come Friday’s meeting, both teams will look to get their ground game going. In fact, if the forward pass were outlawed for just one game, neither team would blink an eye.
Black Hawk/Warren averages over 315 yards per game on the ground while Reedsville averages almost 230.
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Where the two teams differ is the distribution of the workload as the Panthers prefer to have dual-threat quarterback Parker Maney do the heavy lifting while the co-op has a more balanced approach.
Maney is one of just four players in the state to break the 2,000 yard mark and he’s tied for eighth in the state with 29 rushing scores.
For Black Hawk/Warren, running backs Lane Marty (1,408) and Owen Seffrood (1,233) are a one-two punch while quarterback Eli Schliem has over 700 yards as well so he has to be accounted for as well.
If the teams throw, Reedsville’s top target is senior tight end Camden Dvorachek, who has 36 catches for 603 yards and seven touchdowns.
Andrew Figi leads the co-op with 14 catches for 405 yards and six scores. He accounts for almost half of Black Hawk/Warren’s 32 total completions on the season.
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The difference in this one will come down to which team can more effectively neutralize the oppositions run game, which statistically the advantage goes to the co-op.
Black Hawk/Warren is holding opponents to just under 80 yards per game on the ground while the Panthers limit the opposition to just under 115 per game.
This is going to be likely a very close game but I’ll give the edge to Reedsville simply due to the dynamic abilities of Maney.
As the season wore on, Maney was leaned on more and more, proving more than capable of doing whatever is asked of him.
In these types of games, superstars make all the difference and Maney definitely qualifies as one.
Dombeck’s predicted winner: Reedsville
Contact Tom Dombeck at 920-686-2965 or tdombeck@htrnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @Tom_Dombeck.
This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: WIAA football: Reedsville vs. Black Hawk/Warren Level 4 prediction
