New Berlin West football team sees reason for optimism

New Berlin - There were plenty of positives for this year's New Berlin West football team under first-year head coach Al Moroder.

"We started 1-3 on our way to changing our offense including two extremely close losses to Brown Deer and Eisenhower," Moroder said. "But the season quickly turned around in a 16-14 victory over Pius XI, and we finished the season 3-1 on our way to qualifying for the playoffs."

Junior running back turned quarterback Dylan Wiese finished second in Woodland Conference in total rushing yards among running backs with 750 yards in seven games.

Besides being a playoff qualifier, the Vikings were also named the 2012 Week 6 AM 1250 Team of the Week.

Three players made All-Conference First Team - senior defensive end Matt Hewitt, junior interior defensive lineman Lukas Lauer and junior offensive lineman Brett Connors.

The Vikings had 10 honorable mention players - running backs Wiese and junior Bryan Watson; offensive linemen juniors Kevin Thiessenhusen, Spencer Stanfield and Lukas Lauer; junior defensive end Nate Latus, junior linebackers Alex McLeod and Ben Meleski and defensive backs senior Trent Krickeberg and junior Travis McKeon.

Meleski was also an All-Conference All-Academic choice.

Moroder will lose 12 seniors - Hewitt, Krickeberg, Luke Austad, Kevin Dempsey, Paul Kennedy, Adam Linssen, Sean Marton, Steven Nersesian, Ricky Seidl, Dylan Somogji, Matt Stranger and San Juan Yepez.

But things look bright for the Vikings, who were 4-4 in conference play, 4-5 overall.