Bay Port bludgeons Middleton

Carter Parks, Middleton’s brilliant junior tight end, turned toward the scoreboard at Otto Breitenbach Stadium on Aug. 20 and said, “we need to flush this.”

Parks began to point for effect when he noticed the score had already been removed.

There was a good reason for that.

It was Ugly, with a capital U.

Visiting Bay Port scored touchdowns on six of its seven first half possessions, established a running clock to open the second half and routed the host Cardinals, 56-15, in the season-opener for both teams.

It marked the first time since 2012 Middleton was on the wrong end of a running clock and just the third time this century the Cardinals experienced a running clock. It was also Middleton’s most lopsided loss in at least 30 years and the second-most points the Cardinals allowed in a game this century.

“I mean, there’s no sugarcoating this,” Middleton co-coach Tim Simon said.

No, there wasn’t.

There’s certainly no shame in losing to Bay Port. The Pirates are one of the state’s top two or three programs right now, winning the WIAA Division 1 state championship in 2024 and falling to Arrowhead in the final seconds of the 2025 state title game.

But how Middleton lost was certainly concerning.

This was the sixth straight year the Cardinals and Pirates met in the non-conference. And while Bay Port held a 4-1 edge before this year, it had outscored Middleton by 35 total points in the five games — making the difference a respectable 7.0 per season.

On this night, the Pirates held a 35-point halftime lead and added to that advantage in the second half.

“I think everyone was really good at the start, then our confidence just kept lowering and lowering,” Parks said. “Our mental toughness needs to get better, so we need to figure that out.

“Usually in the first game everyone’s scared. So hopefully, that’s out of them.”

While the scoreboard certainly wasn’t pretty, Simon was more concerned that his team didn’t always compete from a physicality standpoint with the mighty Pirates.

“It’s not the outcome we wanted, and when I say it’s not the outcome we wanted, I don’t care so much about the scoreboard,” Simon said. “I care about how we played physically and how sound we played on offense and defense, and we didn’t play as physical as we thought we would be playing. We didn’t play as sound offensively or defensively as we thought we’d play.

“So regardless of the scoreboard, that’s what we’re not happy with. It’s not just the final result. It’s some of the lack of making plays that showed up tonight. But we’ll get better.”

It’s hard to imagine many — if any — teams in the state will be better than the Pirates this season.

Bay Port returned six starters on each side of the ball from a team that was less than a minute from winning back-to-back state titles last season. Instead, Arrowhead returned a kickoff 76 yards for a game-winning touchdown with just 35 seconds left.

That 18-15 loss certainly motivated an already-driven Bay Port program to grind even harder this offseason, something Middleton experienced first-hand in the opener.

“I’ve seen this team’s work since the clocks hit zero last year,” Pirates coach Steven Jorgensen said. “From December until now they didn’t take a week off. They’re hungry. They’ve worked all summer.

“They put together the summer plan with me. They wanted to be on the field with open contact as much as they could. They love this game. They love representing this community. I’m very blessed. God is good, and we just continue to get better.”

Better?

The Pirates couldn’t have been much better against Middleton.

In the first half alone, Bay Port piled up a whopping 431 yards of total offense on just 26 plays, an eye-popping average of 16.58 yards per play. The Pirates had explosive plays of 82, 77, 49, 45 and 32 yards, and had but one penalty in the first half.

On the flip side, Middleton managed just 111 yards of offense on 26 plays — an average of 4.27 yards per play. Middleton’s longest play was a 30-yard fake punt by Parks, and if you remove that, the Cardinals averaged just 3.24 yards per play.

“We’ve played them six years now and that’s the best team that they’ve had,” said Simon, whose team is now 1-5 against the Pirates since 2021. “This is not making excuses, but we’ve got 16 new starters, right? So we had the new guys who were backups last year, but now they’re in the fire.”

And things got hot in a hurry.

Bay Port marched 79 yards in 10 plays on its opening drive, and junior running back Jackson Smith capped that march with a 2-yard TD run. On Middleton’s opening possession, senior running back Derion Hawkins was stuffed for a 2-yard loss on a third-and-1, the Cardinals punted and the Pirates began at their own 48.

Five plays later, Bay Port was back in the endzone when junior quarterback Braydon Maney hit junior fullback Cash Eberling for a 32-yard TD to make it 14-0.

“What I love about this team is we were ready from the start and I am not surprised,” Jorgensen said. “I’m not saying that in an arrogant way. It’s just that I know what this team is capable of and how they work, and they showed their work on the field tonight.”

Middleton got a glimmer of hope when its ensuing drive stalled at midfield, then Parks surprised the Pirates when he faked a punt and ripped off a 30-yard run off left tackle. Two plays later, senior quarterback Eli Breunig hit Parks across the middle, and the burly tight end raced to the endzone for a 17-yard TD that pulled the Cardinals within 14-7 with 25 seconds left in the first quarter.

“I was gassed after the fake punt,” said Parks, who finished the night with six receptions for 95 yards. “But we were able to go and score and that was really good.”

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, there wasn’t much good after that.

On Bay Port’s next drive, junior quarterback Bray Babich — son of Green Bay Packers’ secondary/passing game coordinator Bobby Babich — entered and quickly hit senior wideout Jackson Otradovec for 49 yards to the Middleton 7-yard line.

Smith scored on the next play to give Bay Port a 21-7 lead.

While many high school teams can’t find one high level quarterback, Jorgensen has two with Maney and Babich. Against the Cardinals, Jorgensen rotated the duo and the Pirates’ offense rolled no matter who was under center.

“We’ve got two of the best quarterbacks in the state, and I told them, if you guys can show to this team that you can buy in, any of the other players can buy in,” Jorgensen said. “You are the leaders. This is a player-led team. We expect a lot out of our players from a leadership standpoint.

“Yeah, I get it, the natural thing as a competitor is you see the other guy go in there and have success and it’s like, ‘darn, maybe he’s going to get more snaps now.’ But we’ve got to sacrifice that and be all about the team and have that attitude of cheering on someone else’s success, and then when I get in there, I’ve got to be a playmaker. Our two quarterbacks did that tonight, and so did the rest of our team. So I was I was very happy.”

Jorgensen’s happiness never waned, either.

Midway through the second quarter, Smith came in motion left to right and took a flip from Babich. Smith quickly turned the corner, found a lane and outran Middleton’s defense to the endzone for an 82-yard TD reception to make it 28-7.

Middleton netted just two first downs on its next two drives, and Bay Port took advantage.

First, Pirates senior running back Ryder Timmerman had a 77-yard TD run to make it 35-7 with 1:42 left in the second quarter. Bay Port then got the ball back with just 44 seconds left in the half, and on the first play, Babich hit Otradovec for a 45-yard touchdown that gave the Pirates a 42-7 lead and locked in a running clock to open the second half.

“I mean, when it was 14-7, we had a chance,” Simon said. “And then, all of a sudden we had a tough time moving the ball. It happened so fast. We had a tough time moving the ball and gave up a couple big plays. So, it’s hard to come back from that.”

There was no coming back.

Junior Ben Lashuk, who replaced Breunig at quarterback late in the first half, played the entire second half.

Bay Port’s Ramon Houston intercepted Lashuk midway through the third quarter and returned the pick 39 yards for a touchdown to make it 49-7.

Lashuk had a 1-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter, and the two-point conversion pulled the Cardinals within 49-15 and briefly stopped the running clock. On Bay Port’s next play, though, Babich showed his feet are nearly as deadly as his arm and he erupted for a 51-yard touchdown run to make it 56-15.

“We’ve got to obviously do a better job tackling, but also fitting our gaps,” Simon said. “There’s a couple of those plays they had where every gap was full. So I have no idea how they bounced, and obviously we got beat over the top a couple times.”

A year ago, Bay Port led Middleton, 39-14, with 7 minutes left when Jorgensen pulled his starters. The Cardinals then made things interesting, crept back within 39-36, and were within an onside kick of having a chance to steal a victory.

This year, Jorgensen made sure not to give the Cardinals any life and left his first-teamers in most of the way.

“Our plan was to not let the foot off the gas,” Jorgensen said. “That’s what I told our guys. The clock was running, so we knew it’d only be a few possessions, and our backups had already played the JV game right before us, so it’s a little different. But overall, I’m very pleased. It was a fun night.”

If Middleton is going to have fun nights any time soon it must rebound — and do it quickly.

The Cardinals are at Kenosha Indian Trail (1-0) Friday at 6 p.m. and face a Trail Hawks team that defeated Westosha Central, 14-0, in their season opener.

“As I told the kids, we’ve got no time to feel sorry for ourselves or lick our wounds,” said Simon, whose team defeated KIT, 31-6, in 2025. “We’ve got to get better and get better fast.”

Parks, who played through a sprained ankle, agreed with Simon.

“The score of this game just killed everybody,” Parks said of Bay Port loss. “But hopefully, all of our confidence is back by the end of the week and this game will be washed from everyone’s brain.”

Aug. 20

Bay Port 56, Middleton 15

Bay Port ........ 14 28 7 7 — 42

Middleton ............ 7 0 0 8 — 15

BP: Jackson Smith, 2, run (Henry Montanye kick)

BP: Cash Ebeling, 32, pass from Braydon Maney (Montanye kick)

Midd: Carter Parks, 17, pass from Eli Breunig (Caymus Roberts kick)

BP: Smith, 7, run (Montanye kick)

BP: Smith, 82, pass from Bray Babich (Montanye kick)

BP: Ryder Timmerman, 77, run (Montanye kick)

BP: Jackson Otradovec, 45, pass from Babich (Montanye kick)

BP: Ramon Houston, INT, 39 (Montanye kick)

Midd: Ben Lashuk, 1, run (Derion Hawkins run)

BP: Babich, 51, run (Montanye kick)

TEAM STATISTICS

First downs – BP 20, Midd 10. Rushing (Att.-Yds.) – BP 28-296, Midd 20-91. Passing yards – BP 265, Midd 159. Passing (Comp.-Att.-Int.) – BP 12-15-0, Midd 18-25-3. Fumbles-lost – BP 0-0, Midd 0-0. Penalties-Yds. – BP 2-15, Midd 3-12.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

Rushing (Att.-Yds.-TD) – BP — Ryder Timmerman 8-135-1, Bray Babich 2-60-1, Jackson Smith 7-40-2, Braydon Maney 7-40-0, Reed Krueger 4-21-0; Midd — Ben Lashuk 7-42-1, Derion Hawkins 10-23-0, Carter Parks 1-30-0, Regin Kalscheur 1-1-0, Eli Breunig 1-(-5)-0.

Passing (Att.-Comp.-Yds-TD-INT) – BP — Bray Babich 4-4-186-2-0, Braydon Maney 8-11-79-1-0; Midd — Ben Lashuk 7-10-88-0-2, Eli Breunig 11-15-71-1-1.

Receiving (Rec.-Yds.) — BP — Jackson Otradovec 5-105, Jackson Smith 1-82, Cash Eberling 2-53, Grant Jacques 1-11, Owen Sortorelli 1-7, Ethan Orland 1-4, Jackson Madden 1-3. Midd — Carter Parks 6-95, Regin Kalscheur 5-37, Isaiah Nehring 4-9, Logan Thompson 2-21, Derion Hawkins 1-(-3).