High School Football: Racine Lutheran dominates defending state champion in statement win

Originally published by Racine County Eye.

PRITCHARD PARK – Late in the fourth quarter of a highly anticipated showdown, Racine Lutheran wide receiver Bryce Austin caught a pass and turned upfield as he ran towards the first down marker.

He passed the line to gain as three Kenosha St. Joseph defenders forced him out of bounds. As the exhausted defenders lay sprawled across the sideline, Austin simply pointed forward to signal yet another first down and walked away from the wreckage.

If there was ever a play that signified how Friday night’s highly anticipated showdown between two of the best small school football programs in the area played out, it would be that one.

Fans from across Racine and Kenosha converged on Pritchard Park, excited to see a high level showdown between a Racine Lutheran team that has dominated its competition all season and a St. Joseph team that won the WIAA Division 7 State Championship last fall and was undefeated in conference play this year.

The Crusaders had won their first five Midwest Classic Conference games by an average of over 59 points per game and were 7-0 overall with an average margin of victory of 45 points per game. With their lone win by less than 21 points coming over an hour away in Illinois, fans and media alike showed up wondering how Lutheran would look in a close game.

Fans will have to wait to have that question answered. After a close first half, the Crusaders quickly took control of the game with two touchdowns in the third quarter and coasted to a 33-6 victory over the Lancers. In its toughest test since August, Lutheran passed with flying colors.

“It’s a great team win,” Austin said. “During the whole week, everybody just put in the work and did the little things in practice to make this game what it was.”

“It was a definite battle and they’re a good football team,” Racine Lutheran coach Jeff Kraus said after the win. “It was anybody’s game coming out of the half and we had a great drive to start. I thought our defense was outstanding tonight.”

Senior quarterback Cohen Kraus continued to add to his record-setting senior season, completing 12 of 18 passes for 167 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 109 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries. Kraus has 40 total touchdowns this season, which leads division 5 and is second across all divisions behind Notre Dame standout and Wisconsin commit Kingston Allen (43).

Kraus also had 21 tackles, nine of which were solo and three for loss.

Austin had a quiet first half but still finished with six catches for 82 yards along with an interception on defense, while Myles Bunch added 60 rushing yards and a touchdown on 13 carries.

“The moment wasn’t too big,” Kraus said about his team’s performance. “I think that’s from having seniors now. Everyone was looking forward to playing the game. We needed to get the work in before the playoffs.”

The Crusaders (8-0) held St. Joseph (6-2) to 182 total yards in what would be the largest margin of defeat for the Lancers in nearly three seasons.

“It was a very physical game and we were glad we could compete with us being considered a pretty young squad this year,” St. Joseph coach Matt Rizzo said. “Hats off to Lutheran, they’re well-coached and a bunch of great athletes. I think we’re going to learn a lot from this film and this game.”

Crusaders pull away with ease

As expected, both Racine Lutheran and Kenosha St. Joseph have been dominant in their divisions of the Midwest Classic Conference this season. The Crusaders have outscored their opponents 311-15 in the Midwest Division while the Lancers have won their five games in the Classic Division by a combined score of 267-28.

“With the discrepancy of abilities for both of our programs right now, we’ll take these games any time,” Rizzo said. “We’re always looking for good competition. We want to grow. We want to learn as a team, and we were happy to have a four-quarter game this week.”

So when both teams saw that the divisional crossover matchups pitted the two teams against each other just two weeks before the playoffs, it immediately became one of the biggest games of the season. And with the city rivalry matchup between Case and Park getting canceled, the stands at Pritchard Park were mostly full with fans from all over town showing up to see how this game went.

“It’s exciting because Case always gets everybody at their game and tonight everybody came to ours,” Austin said. “We knew we had to show out for the city.”

Despite not having a close game since winning 23-21 in week one against Marmion Academy in Illinois, the Crusaders were ready for the challenge early.

St. Joseph tried a fake punt on an early possession at midfield, and Lutheran immediately stuffed it out. Several plays later, Kraus broke free down the sideline for a 30-yard touchdown run.

The Lancers struggled to move the ball on their first couple of possessions, but an unfortunate break against them ignited their best drive of the day. Lutheran appeared to have a punt downed inside the five-yard line late in the first quarter, but star player Chris Kenesie snuck in to pick up the ball and take off running past the confused tacklers.

What should have been a long punt-return touchdown was instead accidentally blown dead by an official, who immediately recognized his mistake. The ball was placed at the 20-yard line to start the drive, and St. Joseph made the point moot with an impressive touchdown drive that chewed up a significant amount of clock.

Despite having the extra point blocked and still trailing 7-6, the Lancers continued to carry momentum after forcing a 3-and-out near midfield. But Kraus showed that he is just as dangerous of a weapon on special teams as he is on offense and defense, booting a pooch punt that was downed inside the 1-yard line.

The poor field position led to St. Joseph opting to punt on 3rd-and-long instead of risking a blocked punt on the next play. The Crusaders took over with excellent field position and immediately cashed in, with Bunch scoring from 11 yards out in the final minute of the first half.

With Lutheran leading 13-6 at the break, it appeared that this game might live up to the hype. Then Bryce Austin got loose in the Lancer secondary.

On the first series of the third quarter, Austin exploited a loose coverage and got himself wide open downfield for a 50-yard reception. Several plays later, Kraus hit Maddox Matson in the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown catch to push the lead up to 20-6 just two minutes into the quarter.

“We knew going into halftime that we had the momentum and felt if we scored on the first drive coming out, the game’s gonna be over after that,” Austin said.

With the touchdown pass, Kraus moved into the top 10 in the state for career touchdown passes at 83.

On the ensuing drive, Austin easily intercepted an errant throw from Kenesie. After a 30-yard catch from Trent Bryant, Kraus scored again on a 21-yard touchdown run. A close first half suddenly turned into a 27-6 blowout.

The Lancers had one last push at a comeback, blocking a punt in Lutheran territory late in the third quarter, but the Crusader defense forced a turnover on downs to end the threat. Lutheran grinded down the clock and scored once more with three minutes left on a one-yard touchdown run by Kraus to finish the scoring.

In a fun moment at the end of the game, the Crusaders opted to go for 2-points after the final touchdown. The section of bleachers closest to the end zone was filled with basketball players from all around Racine, who were cheering loudly late for Austin to catch a touchdown. Austin made an incredible catch in the corner of the end zone on the 2-point try that had the section going wild, but his foot barely touched the sideline and the pass was ruled incomplete.

“We have a brotherhood,” Austin said about his friends from basketball. “We’ve been talking with each other since we were in elementary school. We’ve kept that bond close and we’re always there for each other.”

Built to contend

St. Joseph coach Matt Rizzo can relate plenty to some of the challenges Jeff Kraus faces at Racine Lutheran.

Playing in a conference that doesn’t typically have other teams contending for state championships, it can be hard to get a team prepared for a completely different style of play against teams from all over the state in the playoffs.

Rizzo has faced similar problems in the past, coaching the Lancers to unbeaten regular seasons in 2021, 22, 23 before falling in the first three rounds of the playoffs. St. Joseph finally broke through last fall, going undefeated and winning every playoff game by 16 or more points en route to the Division 7 title.

Rizzo sees a lot of similarities between his state championship team and the team his coached against on Friday night. Like the Crusaders, the Lancers were led by a senior quarterback, Zach Rizzo, who was also the coach’s son and had a dominant year with 2,490 passing yards, 29 touchdowns and two interceptions.

“I had my son in his class since the sixth grade, they all stuck together and we won a state championship last year,” Rizzo said. “Cohen and the group they have, they’ve kept their core nucleus together and that’s really what it takes in small schools.”

St. Joseph also had a strong group of seniors on last year’s team that accounted for most of the production on both sides of the ball, with some help from a few talented underclassmen like Kenesie and then-freshman Tae’viyon Booker.

“Back-to-back strong classes really helps for small schools,” Rizzo said. “Just a belief in a culture and a buy-in from the guys, while also retaining them. If we can continue to retain those kids in our schools and with our programs, it bodes really well for the future of our programs. Racine Lutheran does a really good job with that, and so do we.

“If you can get anything over 30, 35, 40 kids in our program, that’s what the magic is in our divisions,” Rizzo added. “I know that Jeff gets it and they know how to run a great program.”

The Crusaders are playing two divisions higher than the Lancers did last year, in a stacked division 5 that still features three other unbeaten teams. Lutheran also dealt with a pair of potentially significant injuries in Friday’s game, with junior lineman Colin Westcomb dislocating his knee and senior lineman Cameron Yohn also going down with an injury.

Injuries derailed a potential deep postseason run for the Crusaders last season as well, with Austin suffering a dislocated knee and missing the final five games of the year. With Austin sidelined, Lutheran allowed 252 passing yards in a 39-13 upset loss to New Glarus in Level 2 of the playoffs.

“I think they have enough athleticism and team speed that they will be really dangerous in the D5 playoffs this year,” Rizzo said. “And they’re a veteran group now. They’re poised. They had a lot of their key players return, they’re kind of made for these moments. Their kids play their schemes really well, and that’ll bode well for them down the stretch.”

With nearly every week turning into a blowout, Kraus has had to navigate a challenging line on how long to keep starters in games. While he does not want to risk injuries with the outcome already in hand, he also wants his starters to actually play more than two quarters in games every week and get the full high school football experience.

“It is extremely difficult right now because we’ve had so many injuries that the guys that I would put in there are no longer available,” Kraus said. “Then we’re looking at a step down to freshmen, who some of them haven’t played football before and it’s not safe to put them in a game. It’s extremely frustrating to be up 33-6 on the last drive and not get all the guys out.”

A historic season continues for Kraus

In his fourth season as Racine Lutheran’s starting quarterback, Kraus continues to pile up records and accolades.

Not only is he now tied for 10th in the state for all time passing touchdowns, but he is now fifth all time for all-purpose touchdowns by a quarterback with 128. Kraus needs 17 more touchdowns passes 2014 Greendale graduate Josh Ringleberg for the all-time record.

“He had a special night,” Kraus said about his son.

Kraus has thrown for 1,647 yards and 22 touchdowns with no interceptions, while also rushing for 603 yards and 17 touchdowns on just 60 carries. On defense, he leads the team with 58 tackles, 38 of which are solo and eight are for loss.

Player of the game

With his performance on Friday, it’s no surprise that Cohen Kraus earned the honors for this game.

One of the biggest individual matchups in this game was Kraus against Kenesie, a University of Northern Iowa football commit who has had an outstanding season for the Lancers, and Kraus outplayed him in all three phases on Friday night.

“We needed to limit Kenesie and that was Cohen’s job,” Kraus said. “To do what he did on both sides of the ball was special. Kenesie is a division 1 player and a stud. When you have a leader who steps up and keeps delivering hits on defense, then starts delivering hits on offense and throwing the ball like that, it’s a special performance.”

Kraus is likely to be named the MWCC player of the year and will certainly be a finalist for Racine County Player of the Year in what is shaping up to be a highly contested race this fall.

Play of the Game

Kraus made plenty of flashy plays with his arm and legs, but it was his coffin-corner pooch punt before halftime that truly changed the game.

St. Joseph had all the momentum after a long touchdown drive and a 3-and-out when Kraus booted the punt towards the corner. After Kenesie nearly returned the last punt, Crusader coaches started yelling for teammates to grab the ball immediately to blow the play dead.

But with no Lancers nearby, Lutheran’s players smartly let the punt roll inside the 1-yard line before downing it.

Instead of potentially turning the ball over on downs at midfield and giving St. Joseph a shot at taking the lead before halftime, the Lancers had no choice but to take two quarterback sneaks to get out of the end zone before punting on third down.

Up next

The Crusaders will close out the regular season against Pius XI Catholic (4-3) Friday night at Horlick Field. It will be senior night for nine seniors that have had a massive impact on Lutheran’s program, who hope to have at least five more games together after this one.

Lutheran will then learn its playoff draw on Saturday morning. The Crusaders are a projected No. 1 seed in the WIAA’s 2026 Football Preliminary Qualifying Standings, meaning they would get to play at home for the first three levels of the playoffs.

“I feel like we’re ready but we’re not as ready as we can be,” Austin said. “I feel like we can still put in a lot more work and fix up the little details to make us stay a contender.”