We are now officially one week through the football season in the WIAA and teams are starting to get settled into the new year with some new faces and some improvements from the returning players. For this week I will be traveling to Muskego to cover the Oak Creek Knights vs Muskego Warriors Matchup on Maxpreps.

Preview

A very highly anticipated game between two teams in Division 1 that are ranked in the top 10 by MyCommunityNow. The traveling Oak Creek Knights come into this matchup (1-0) after their stunning 52-0 blowout win over the Union Grove Broncos while the Muskego Warriors are also (1-0) defeating a tough Verona Wildcats team 38-35 on a game-winning field goal by kicker Gabe Walden last Friday in a back and forth entertaining game. The Knights and Warriors previously met in week 2 of the 2022 season and it was filled with a back-and-forth first half where the defenses got stops left and right and then touchdowns from their offenses but in the second half, former senior running back Sam Steuber went off with two rushing touchdowns and 161 rushing yards and led the Muskego Warriors to a 41-21 victory. This year expect the game to be a lot more interesting as both teams lost crucial seniors but also have a good amount of returning juniors that made an impact last season in their last matchup.

3 Players To Watch From The Oak Creek Knights

RB: Jackson Phelps– Jackson is coming into his senior season coming off of a career high junior year as the starting RB with 1,235 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns. He is a very hard player to take town on the field and can break a few tackles and the next thing you know he’s 50 yards into the endzone. I am very excited to see what he can bring to the table against one of their most challenging defenses in the WIAA Muskego. When they met last year Phelps ran for 111 yards on 24 attempts. Expect him to have a bigger game this year as the Knights look to run the ball like how Muskego did to them last year.

ILB: Drew Braam– The South Dakota State Jackrabbit commit is going into his 4th and final year as a varsity starter and he has definitely impressed throughout his long high school career. He is a pain for OL’s as he can slash through quickly with his toughness and forces a lot of tackles. Last year Braam had a career high in tackles 84 as he doubled his freshman and sophmore year combined. He is also getting more reps in at the tight end position this year as he had 2 receptions for 38 yards including a receiving touchdown last Friday night against Union Grove. Looking forward to seeing the senior captain play a big part in trying to stop the heavy run game and maybe a big part on offense too.

QB: Izayah Angeles– Since starting Quarterback Cade Palkowski has decided to quit football right before the season because of a baseball scholarship at North Carolina the torch has been passed to sophomore Izayah Angeles. Coming into this season Angeles has no varsity experience as Cade has been QB1 since he started freshman year, but their are positive things to take away from his first career start against Union Grove. His stats were good for his first ever start on varsity as he went 10/13 attempts on 136 passing yards, 2 passing touchdowns and no interceptions. Angeles really shows flashes of Cade as he can scramble under pressure and find the open man downfield when he needs to. I believe Oak Creek is in good hands with him at QB1 and it will really get a put to the test Friday against the the top 5 ranked Muskego.

3 Players To Watch On The Muskego Warriors

RB: Jack Labisch– The new starting running back showed off in his week one opener against Verona as he rushed for 147 yards on 20 attempts and one rushing touchdown. I will say that he is without a doubt looking a lot like last years star Sam Steuber after that game because he can run the ball consistently getting a lot of first downs when he needs to. Labisch is a junior coming into his first season as a varsity starter and hopes to run the ball to confuse the Oak Creek defense just as they did in the 2022 season as the Warriors rushed for 332 yards as a team that game.

TE: Aiden Krause– One of the stars on the receiving end for the Warriors Aiden Krause is looking for a career year as he had 514 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns his junior season. Just last week Krause kicked off his season with a hot start as he received for 120 yards and one touchdown along with a two-point conversion. At this rate the senior has a chance to blow right through his career high receiving yards by week 4/5 for the season. Muskego is a run first team but Krause can definitely help them when they pass every so often.

DL: Liam Shaw- A name that makes this list after a spectacular week 1 on the 2023 campaign, Liam Shaw had an amazing week against Verona to lead the Muskego defense. He is a heavy pressure guy on the D-line and made it hard for Verona’s starting Quarterback last week as he had 3 sacks, along with 7 tackles all together to carry the Muskego defense on a relatively strong Verona Wildcat offense. Looking forward to see if he can continue his hot start to his first year as a starter on varsity this Friday against the Knights.

Keys For Both Teams

Oak Creek– Must stop the run game. The Knights got killed when Muskego ran the ball for the most of that game when they met in the 2022 season and gave up 332 rushing yards on 5 rushing touchdowns. That is 35 out of their 41 points they scored in that matchup. The one other thing is that the Knights must not turn the ball over. Last matchup they turned the ball over 3 times and it happened while they were driving down the field and the Warriors would score off of the turnovers after that. If they can stop the heavy run game, and less turnovers the Oak Creek Knights could be looking at a 2-0 record and potentially putting themselves a spot in the top 5 in Division 1.

Muskego– Keeping success at the run game. After a huge performance week two against the Knights last season the Warriors are hoping for a repeat performance by their heavily talented running back core. The Warrior defense allowed 35 points in last weeks contest against Verona which mostly came from their pass game, and this needs to be something they should be able to take advantage in a big matchup on the Oak Creek offense this week with a rookie QB and some newer wide receivers for them this year.

Details On Game (How To Watch, Time)

The game will be hosted at Inpro Field at Muskego High School at 7pm CT, and will be streamed by MaxPreps and Just A Game Live as I will have the call for both streams Play-By-Play live starting at 6:55pm CT. Link for the stream is right below.

https://www.maxpreps.com/news/wDv6JCf-1kOHZtIHPhfj_g/listen-live-friday-oak-creek-at-muskego.htm