Panthers’ season ends in loss to Whitefish Bay

The Greendale Football team ended their season with a 9-3 record, finishing with a 21-14 loss to Whitefish Bay in Level three of WIAA Playoffs. It was the first time since 2014 that Greendale made it to Level three, ending as one of the top eight teams in Division Three.

The game started out with a field goal by Whitefish Bay, who had a 3-0 lead  to start the game off. On Greendale’s first drive, senior quarterback Mitchell Gnadt threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to junior Masseo Wooden, and Greendale took a 7-3 lead.

Whitefish Bay added a field goal to end to the half, and the Panthers took the lead 7-6.

After that, Whitefish Bay scored two touchdowns and got a two-point conversion to take a 21-7 lead.

On the last offensive drive of Greendale’s season, Gnadt threw a touchdown pass to Wooden. Greendale attempted an onside kick but didn’t recover, and Whitefish Bay took a knee to end the game and the Panther’s season 21-14.

Gnadt was proud of the season. “Obviously our season didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but I could not be prouder of the way our team played the entire year,” Gnadt said. “No one expected us to be very good, but we proved everyone wrong and made it to Level Three, something we hadn’t done since my freshman year.”

Senior running back Jazil Baig was also proud of the season. “It didn’t end the way we wish it did, but I couldn’t have been more proud to wear Greendale across my chest every game. Our senior class worked hard from our freshman year all the way to now, and seeing that hard work come together this year was really special and something I’ll remember forever.”

As the seniors’ career came to an end, senior lineman Matt Derksen thought back to his entire eight year football career. “It was hard to see my football career come to an end because I’ve worked so hard every year and seeing it come to end was hard. All good things must come to an end though, and I wouldn’t have wanted it to end any other way, besides winning state, that would have been cool,”he said.

With the seniors’ careers over, the juniors will have to pick up the reins and continue to play the way Greendale’s played for years.

Junior lineman Josh Dooley is looking forward to next year. “I was upset our season ended because I was close with a lot of the seniors, and we were so close to getting to our goal, which was state, and because we had proved everyone wrong who said we were going to have a down year,” Dooley said. “I’m excited to see our class as the leaders next year because it’ll be our last year together and because if we play together we’ll continue to be a dominant team.”