Sports
Senior Sparks Comeback Win for Tosa East in 'Battle of the Tosas'
Red Raiders knock off cross-town rival for first win since 2008.
There are big wins, and then there’s what Wauwatosa East accomplished Saturday night at .
The Red Raiders knocked off cross-town rival Wauwatosa West, 21-13, in the two teams’ first meeting since 1996. Perhaps more importantly, the program won its first game since Oct. 10, 2008.
- See photo gallery from the game
“This is a great win,” Wauwatosa East head coach Jake Wolter said. “It’s been 15 years since East and West have played, so there was a lot of emotion in this game.
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“(It’s been) 20 games. I know exactly how many games. Racine Case won last night, who had the longest streak in the area at, like, 34, so we became the longest one after last night. So I didn’t want to take that another week. Our kids made it happen.
“It was a long six-to-eight months between games; it’s just such a good feeling.”
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In a sobering end to an exciting night, Tosa West starting quarterback Josh Stoeckmann was taken to the hospital by a Wauwatosa Fire Department paramedic unit after he was injured during the Trojans' final possession of the game. His condition was not known, but he was hit high and may have suffered a concussion.
A big reason East (1-0) was able to win was due to the play of running back Michael Meade.
The short and shifty senior didn’t come into the game until midway through the third quarter with his team already trailing 13-0. He left the game with 120 yards on 15 carries and two touchdowns.
“We’ve got a couple injuries in the backfield and he (Meade) is a senior captain,” Wolter said. “He did an unbelievable job. He just proved his worth tonight.”
Added Meade: “D.J. Greenhill was out this week with a concussion, and I knew I was eventually going to get my chance, and I knew I had to go big.”
Meade was key in the start of the comeback for East. In his first series, he was a big contributor to a drive that was capped by an 11-yard pass from junior Kyle Vnuk to classmate Shaquille Redding to get East on the board at 13-7.
On their next possession, Meade took over. The senior carried the ball five times for 53 yards, including an 18-yard score to give the Red Raiders the lead early in the fourth quarter.
Coach Wolter continued to ride his hot hand as Meade found the end zone on East’s next series, this time on a 25-yard dash, to stretch the lead to 21-13 in what proved to be the game’s final score.
“This is a great feeling,” Meade said. “I’m super tired. I had a ton of energy coming into this game. We’ve been preparing for this for nine months now. As soon as we found out (the schedule) we got in the weight room right away.
“We weren’t going to lose this game.”
After a scoreless first quarter, it looked like East was going to start the scoring off for the night with an impressive drive that took them to the foot of the redzone just before halftime.
Instead, Wauwatosa West (1-0) junior Mickey Morgan sat on a quick route on the outside and picked off Vnuk’s pass, returning it 75 yards for the score.
Morgan struck again in the second half, fielding a booming punt after East’s first possession of the second half at the 13-yard line, eluding the first would-be tacklers and following his blockers down the left sideline for an 87-yard score.
“I was scared (at that point),” Wolter said. “We could have easily folded and let them win 30-something to nothing, but it was just a matter of us… no one was angry, we just knew we needed to execute.”
In all, East amassed 300 yards of total offense. The Trojans managed just 148.
Redding led the way for all receivers with 79 yards on four catches.
The Red Raiders look to continue their winning ways next Friday against Nicolet while West heads to Brown Deer to take on the Falcons.
