McCormick’s acrobatic catches seal the deal
By Mike Ramczyk
Sports Editor
On Friday night against Burlington, Waterford senior wide receiver Johnny McCormick showed why he’s the top-ranked player at his position according to the Wissports.net Class of 2016 rankings.
His 107 yards and two touchdowns, including a late back-breaker, helped Waterford defeat Burlington, 34-14, and improve to 4-0 and 2-0 in the Southern Lakes Conference.
It was the third straight opponent Waterford defeated that beat them last season. McCormick called it the team’s “revenge tour.”
The Demons dropped to 2-2 (0-2 SLC).
McCormick’s hype is sharply contrasted by his soft-spoken demeanor and willingness to give all the credit for his performance to quarterback Sam Allen and the offensive line.
“Come on, you can take some credit, that was a hell of a catch,” Allen said to McCormick, referring to McCormick’s game-clinching, 12-yard touchdown catch with 7:33 left in the game.
McCormick said Allen “made a great throw and put the ball where it needed to be,” which was part of the equation, but it was McCormick’s athleticism and field awareness that made the dagger possible.
“On the last play, I noticed they were pressing me,” McCormick said. “So I sprinted over to coach Fish (offensive coordinator Dave Fisher) and told him to call the fade.”
On third and 12, McCormick made a move at the line against one-on-one coverage, and Allen lobbed a pinpoint pass in the front corner of the end zone. McCormick leapt over his defender with the safety in hot pursuit, caught the ball at its highest point, was hit in the air and landed with both feet inbounds just inside the pylon.
It was a case of good defense getting beaten by better offense, and it essentially put the game out of reach at 34-14.
A huge momentum shift
After Burlington cut into its 28-7 deficit with an 84-yard, momentum-changing touchdown pass from Cal Tully to Ty Wiemer with three minutes left in the third quarter, the Demon defense forced a turnover on downs by stuffing Waterford on a fourth-and-one run.
Burlington continued its passing assault, and a Tully run on third and long set up a manageable fourth down around the Waterford 20. Tully was flushed to his left but threw back across his body to a streaking Dale Damon, who had the ball ricochet off his hands in the end zone.
“We got lucky that he dropped the ball,” said Waterford head coach Adam Bakken.
The Demons’ front line held strong, forcing Waterford into a fourth down. But McCormick made his first acrobatic catch of the drive to keep the chains moving.
Allen lobbed a deep pass down the left sideline, almost out of the reach of the 6-foot-2 receiver. But McCormick beat his man and tracked the perfect spiral down, extending fully for the diving, over-the-shoulder 30-yard catch.
On the next play, Allen lobbed a deep ball to the right side, and Dyln Ross adjusted his body and snagged it for another big gain.
McCormick finished the game with five catches for 107 yards and two touchdowns. He caught a 44-yard score in the first half.
Allen threw for 193 yards and ran for a touchdown.
A big difference was in the run game. Waterford pounded the football with a smash-mouth style en route to a 21-7 halftime lead. The Wolverines totaled 191 rushing yards for the game and only allowed 26 from Burlington.
“We went for it on fourth down so much because with Coach Tenhagen’s offense, you can’t get complacent,” Bakken said. “As soon as you do that, they’re going to score too many points too quickly. We tried to be aggressive all night.”
Waterford converted a fake punt and a long reverse run in the first half to keep drives alive. In the second half, up 14 points, the Wolverines went for it on fourth and 1 near midfield, and threw deep on a fourth and short. Waterford pulled out all the stops to keep the Burlington offense off the field.
The gambles paid off. Waterford controlled the clock when it needed to and won the time-of-possession battle by six minutes.
“Burlington’s offense has a lot more big plays, typically,” Bakken said. “They had one big play tonight. We made one mistake. Knowing we had to keep the pressure on, Sam made some huge, clutch throws. Johnny, that’s why he’s one of the best around. If you load up on Johnny, there’s Dyln.”
“We have multiple guys to throw to and to hand off to, and we’re not fully healthy yet. We have guys that step in, and we have fantastic senior leadership. Our line blocked the best it has all year.”
Ben Michalowski led the Wolverines with 97 yards on 11 carries.
Waterford converted 50 percent of its fourth downs (3-for-6) and 42 percent on third down.
Tully finished 20-for-35 for 154 yards. Wiemer totaled 126 yards on five catches, and Nick Klug added 60 yards on seven catches. Damon caught five balls for 39 yards.
Hunter Keller had three catches for 51 yards for Waterford.
On the first play of the game, Tully threw a pick-six, and Burlington was in an early 7-0 hole. McCormick’s touchdown catch made it 14-0 near the end of the first quarter.
Burlington answered with a six-yard scoring run from Tully with 8:48 in the second quarter, but Allen’s short touchdown run made it 21-7 near halftime. Waterford got the ball back and threatened to score again, but Burlington senior Erik Viel picked off Allen in the end zone for a touchback.
Ross scored on four-yard run with 7:56 left in the third to give Waterford a 28-7 advantage.
Tenhagen said it was tough to lose a conference game, and he added that football is a huge momentum game.
“They had a hell of a game plan, and they came out and executed it,” he said. “We’ve got to get better. We’re alright, there’s just some things we need to work on.”
“We can’t leave our defense on the field the way we did tonight. We need to be able to move the football on the ground. It’s tough to win when you have to chuck it around every down. Waterford was strong with their interior defense. They invited us to run and took away our deep ball.”
Tenhagen said Waterford ran with the momentum for awhile in the first half. He said his guys had a chance to come back in the end.
“We dug ourselves a hole early, and they played with momentum all night,” he said. “We had it for a brief moment, but they did a nice job of taking it back.”
“It’s on me and the coaching staff to have the kids bounce back. Obviously, the kids are disappointed right now. When you line up with Badger and Waterford right out of the gate, you know you have to have your best. We definitely didn’t have our best tonight.”
For an exclusive post-game interview video of McCormick and Allen from Southeast Wisconsin Preps Report and Ramczyk, click here.
Other area football scores
Catholic Central 35, Martin Luther 6
Union Grove 28, Delavan-Darien 16
Lake Geneva Badger 56, Westosha Central 6
Wilmot 41, Elkhorn 12
East Troy 44, Jefferson 14
Muskego 27, Mukwonago 21
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Nice story thank you