GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Bay Port is one win away from its ultimate goal: a trip to Camp Randall Stadium for the state championship game.
After not winning their regular conference championship, the Pirates have been on a mission this postseason to make it to Madison.
"We didn't get what we wanted," junior center Aiden Dirksen said. "We wanted to be conference champs. It was the goal going into the season along with winning state, and I think that's kind of fueling us."
The Pirates dominated in their first two playoff games, defeating Milwaukee Bradley Tech and Sheboygan North. Last week, Bay Port defeated defending state champs Marquette University High School.
"That was awesome," Dirksen said. "Winning that meant so much to our team knowing that we can beat a pretty high-state caliber team."
First-year head coach Steven Jorgensen said Bay Port started slow early in the season, but as the season went on the Pirates started playing better football.
"We were confident going into that game that if we executed our game plan for 48 minutes, we'd come out on top, and we were able to do that," Jorgensen said.
Jorgensen has been an assistant coach for Bay Port the past two years and took over as head coach this season.
Senior fullback James Williams said the team is a brotherhood and Jorgensen has had a huge impact on them.
"He's really got the team rallied behind him," Williams said. "We had a little bit of struggles in the regular season with two losses but he's really had us rally behind him these playoffs."
Jorgensen is hoping to lead his team to Madison. But first, the Pirates need to beat No. 7 D.C. Everest, the lowest-seeded team to make the Division 1 semifinals.
"That's no 7 seed," Jorgensen said. "They're a conference champ. They're going to be confident. We're confident. It's going to be a great showdown."
Bay Port will face D.C. Everest in Oshkosh at Titan Stadium on Friday at 7 p.m.
