After watching fellow Classic 8 schools rack up state titles, Mukwonago and Kettle Moraine finally have that second state trip

The specific years will always mean something to longtime fans of Kettle Moraine and Mukwonago athletics. 1988 and 2004. They represent the single state championship in each Classic 8 school's football history, and the only time the respective schools have even been to a state final.

That changes Friday, when Kettle Moraine (10-3) battles West De Pere (12-1) for the Division 2 state title, followed by Mukwonago (12-1) meeting Kimberly (12-1) for the Division 1 crown.

In a conference brimming with football excellence, the schools have watched as Arrowhead, Waukesha West, Catholic Memorial and Muskego piled up WIAA titles over the years — a combined 12 of them since 2004 (though CMH's last year came as a member of the Parkland).

Now it's their turn to come back for seconds.

In 1988, Kettle Moraine was a Cinderella story ... kind of

The Lasers had to win each of its four postseason games on the road, and they won the first three by a combined 21 points to get to state, then defeated New Berlin West for the 1988 Division 2 crown, 20-7.

"We knew going into the season that we had a good chance to make the playoffs," Kettle Moraine coach Greg Vock said shortly before his death in 2011. "But everything fell into place for us. We won some close games and then won all those games on the road. I think we were underdogs in every one of those playoff games. But the guys believed in themselves and in the coaching staff."

But the Lasers weren't a late-season flourish. They finished the year 12-1, with a nonconference win over eventual Division 1 state champion Racine Park and future state player of the year Brent Moss. They also won the Suburban Park Conference. However, the Division 2 field was perceptively deeper than D1, and defending state champion Middleton would be one of the roadblocks along the way.

And yet, Kettle Moraine prevailed over Middleton, 20-13, in the quarterfinals. Jon Larson kicked a school-record 42-yard field goal with 9 minutes left to account for the winning points against River Falls in the semifinal for a 10-7 win, and track sprinter Jason Beier finished the four postseason games with six interceptions, not to mention his major contributions running the ball.

Beier earned second-team all-state that season at end and spearheaded Kettle Moraine's ground-and-pound attack.

"Any time a team can run up the middle the way they did against a football team and you can't shut it down, you don't deserve to win," said Doug Lange, then coach for New Berlin West, in the moments after the state final. "We did everything we could to stop them and we could not stop them."

But it wasn't just a gritty ground game that got the Lasers the gold ball. Though West took a 7-3 lead with 1:27 to go before halftime, Kettle Moraine drove 72 yards in five plays, capped by Beier's touchdown, to score with 23 seconds left.

It was two gadget plays that helped make it happen. A hook-and lateral play (Aaron Schwaab to Jim Arndt and back to Keith Weinkauf) picked up 24 yards. On the next play, Weinkauf took a handoff, rolled right and completed a 32-yard pass to Beier for a first down. Beier scored on the next snap.

Sam Meeth scored early in the second half to make it a 17-7 Lasers lead, and Kettle Moraine's defense held West to just one first down in the second half.

"We just switched the assignments of our tackles, our nose man started to play better on the inside and we turned our ends loose," said Vock, whose name now adorns the field at Kettle Moraine. "I think I may have out-coached myself on the defensive ends. I gave them all these reads and I said, 'The heck with that. Go play football.'"

Mukwonago finished strong after epic semifinal

If you want an eerie bit of serendipity between the two occasions, New Berlin West had reached the state final with a 15-14 win over Menomonee Falls. That's exactly the score and opponent for Mukwonago's state semifinal win in 2004, a game remembered at Mukwonago as perhaps more epic than the championship itself.

But after 26 years as head coach, Mukwonago's Keith Hensler had gotten his school to the final and capped it with a 17-6 win over Marshfield.

Quarterback John Witte, who'd been knocked from the semifinal against Menomonee Falls with a badly sprained ankle, gutted through the pain to rush for 132 yards and two touchdowns.

Like this year's team, Mukwonago made its living as a rushing attack, racking up 362 of its 406 total yards on the ground to finish a 14-0 season.

"I’ve been around so long, they used to boost you on their shoulders and carry you around," Hensler said then. "Now they dump a bucket of cold water on you. Things have changed a lot."

Eric Will's interception with less than 4 minutes left ended one of only three Marshfield possessions in the second half.

But that semifinal played between two undefeated teams at Waukesha North was something else. Witte, the leader of Mukwonago's famous triple-option offense, was knocked out in the first quarter, putting backup Matt Bird into the movie-meets-reality moment.

"I had always been ready," Bird said in 2012. "I had always known there was a chance I would go in. I had seen some time earlier in the season, so at no point did I feel I wasn't ready. We were deep at every position; that was something we had going for us."

Mukwonago finished 14-0. Hensler, by the way, also had the field named after him at Mukwonago.

"Witte had been doing such a great job for us," Hensler said in 2012. "The offense just moved when he was in there. Matt kind of stood up and became a leader for the rest of that game. He gave a speech (at halftime). We decided as an offensive staff, we were going to go back to basic stuff the rest of the game and let Matt settle in there and see what he could do."

On his first snap, Bird fumbled the ball, and he threw an interception in the second quarter. But Falls missed a field goal before half and never got within the Mukwonago 44-yard line in the second half. Mukwonago still trailed early in the fourth when it was stopped at the 1, but Jeff Trinka tackled Falls running back Ryan Gorecki for a safety to shrink the Falls lead to 14-9.

Bird finished only 2 for 5 for 18 yards passing, but that wasn't his sole contribution. On second and 17 on the ensuing possession, Bird scrambled for 20 yards and a first down to the Falls 33. Two plays later, Bird handed the ball off to Matt Gregory for the go-ahead touchdown and 15-14 lead.

"That was probably the best play of my life, and all I had to do was hand off the ball," Bird said.

JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kettle Moraine, Mukwonago have second chance at title