CATHOLIC CENTRAL FOOTBALL: Dynamic duo’s final act

Kresken, Heiligenthal will lead Toppers this season

 

By Mike Ramczyk

Sports Editor

With the departure of more than 1,000 yards of total offense from last year’s 8-3, Level 2 playoff-qualifying Catholic Central football team, the passing game will feature all new faces.

The running game, however, isn’t going anywhere.

This fall, senior Cole Kresken, the area’s leading returning rusher with 1,136 yards in 2015, is back, bigger, stronger and faster than ever.

The 6-foot, 200-pound explosive backfield threat joins senior quarterback Ben Heiligenthal for the duo’s third year as a starting 1-2 punch.

The Toppers will lean on the two, along with a strong senior class of leaders, to attempt to knock off Metro Classic defending champion Racine St. Cat’s, which was a game better in the standings and two touchdowns better when the teams met.

Head coach Tom Aldrich, now in his 24^th year, brings back assistant coach Joe Vrchota, offensive coordinator Mike Vanderbeke and line coach Rob Hintz. The quartet has been together for 15 years.

Max Voss, BJ Ritzman and Adam Labadie will coach the junior varsity.

The coaches, along with 34 varsity players, will once again expect to compete with everyone in the Metro Classic Conference despite being the smallest school.

“We have a really nice senior class of 13 guys,” Aldrich said Tuesday afternoon at the St. Mary’s practice field. “Guys worked hard in the offseason and are hungry and determined. The playoff loss hurt them just as much as it hurt last year’s seniors.”

A couple of those key seniors were Jeff Stemper and Spencer Wilker, who accounted for more than 1,000 yards of offense and added 67 tackles, seven sacks and two interceptions.

If anyone can carry the load himself, it’s Kresken. The team’s leading tackler has rushed for 700 or more yards and 10 touchdowns the past two seasons.

And despite the losses of Stemper and Christian Nicholls in the passing game, Heiligenthal will have plenty of options to target including Brandon Vandehei, Jake Webley, Cole Pankau and 6-foot-5 tight end Jack Horner.

Webley will try to fill Stemper’s shoes as a running back/receiver combination.

Newcomer Zach McClenathan, a transfer student from Illinois that now lives in Delavan, is a 5-foot-10, 157-pound receiver and defensive back.

Trevor Meinholz, who Aldrich said has lost some weight and had a great summer, along with Ian Aldrich, Andy Kempken and Kyle Goethal, lead a seven-man offensive line. Coach Aldrich said the lack of depth in the line is the team’s biggest area of concern.

The Toppers will try to mix things up offensively, but having Kresken as a workhorse isn’t exactly a bad thing.

“Cole is going to shoulder more of the load,” Coach Aldrich said. “And Vandehei has made some great strides. Pankau is extremely athletic, we have big hopes for him. I’m assuming teams will try to take away the run with Cole. Hopefully, that opens things up for everybody.”

Gonzalo Perez returns as the team’s kicker, which Aldrich said solidifies that aspect.

 

Bringing the heat

Defensively, Coach Aldrich said the team will try to bring pressure. It’s a luxury with the talent in the secondary.

“We play a 4-4 in principle,” he said. “We can gamble because we have decent size and good athletes in the secondary.”

“It all starts with Kresken in the middle, who is a linebacker/safety hybrid. The corners will be on an island.”

Kresken led the team with 66 tackles in 2014.

Aldrich said Horner will provide pressure at the defensive end position.

The team’s nose tackle, Hertel Novasic, only stands 5-foot-5 and weights 131 pounds, but Aldrich says he is nearly impossible to block.

“We have playmakers, kids that can get us back in a game,” Coach Aldrich said. “Kresken, Ben, Pankau, Vandehei, Meinholz, Goelthal, Hertel, we have kids that can make things happen on every play.”

The Toppers took part in the Tony Romo camp this summer and had a two-day camp at Catholic Central.

The program took advantage of four of five contact days, but that didn’t mean the players weren’t putting in extra time.

“I would drive by here and kids were running routes and doing things on their own,” Aldrich said. “They’re pretty serious about this season. It’s very rewarding to see that as a coach. We see that and we want to work harder for them.”

“Our goal is to get better every game out. If we take care of that, all the other things we want will happen.”

Aldrich said St. Cat’s, Shoreland Lutheran, Racine Lutheran and Kenosha St. Joe’s should all be strong in the conference. After the normal scrimmage ups and downs last Friday, Coach Aldrich said it’s time to put it all together Friday night in the Toppers’ home opener against Division 3 Whitewater.

“They have a new coach, so that will be a wild card,” he said. “We’re so much more worried about us than them.”

 

Schedule

(HOME GAMES IN BOLD CAPS)

– all games 7 p.m. unless noted

August – 21: WHITEWATER. 28: at Lake Country Lutheran. September – 4: at Shoreland Lutheran. 11: MARTIN LUTHER. 18: at Racine Lutheran. 24: at Whitefish Bay Dominican. October – 2: ST. THOMAS MORE. 10: at Racine St. Catherine’s, 1 p.m., Horlick Field. 16: KENOSHA ST. JOSEPH.