Can Green Bay Notre Dame football make title game for third straight year?

The Green Bay Notre Dame football team has been one of the best in the state the last two seasons, reaching a WIAA title game both years and making school history along the way.

Nothing suggests that will stop in 2026.

The Tritons enter a Week 1 game at Neenah on Aug. 21 riding a 25-game regular-season winning streak, the best mark in program history since Notre Dame joined the WIAA in 2000.

It has not lost a regular-season game in almost three years, the last coming in a nonconference defeat to Waunakee in August 2023.

The Tritons have outscored opponents by a combined 1,124-214 during that span and beat them by an average of more than five touchdowns per game.

While Notre Dame plays in a Fox River Classic Conference-South that features a handful of struggling programs, it has defeated Kaukauna and De Pere two times each during the winning streak and Menasha three times.

It also won the D3 state championship in 2024 and lost to West De Pere in the D2 title game in 2025 that ended a 27-game overall winning streak.

As for an encore?

Notre Dame, along with Bay Port, has a chance to become just the second local team in state history to reach a title game three straight years, joining a West De Pere program that went each season from 2009 to 2011.

The Tritons remain in D2 this season and feature notable talent despite the graduation of some key players.

The team has three NCAA Division I commits in running back Kingston Allen (Wisconsin), offensive lineman-defensive lineman Richie Flanigan (University of Notre Dame) and defensive end-tight end Joey Massey (Iowa State).

Notre Dame coach Michael Rader has been part of the coaching staff since 1998 and is a 1992 graduate of the school.

Whether as a player, assistant or head coach, he can’t remember a time when the program had three DI players in the same class.

Combine that with the return of all-conference players in senior linebacker-fullback Jack Whitehouse, senior linebacker Jonas Berndt and senior defensive back Jonah Marzec, and Notre Dame appears set for another dominant season.

“Obviously, we are very fortunate that we have this class with this amount of talent in it,” Rader said. “I don’t know if it was something in the water back when these kids were born, but it speaks to these guys pushing each other. When you are comparing yourself to guys in the weight room who are the same level as you, that’s pretty cool. They challenge each other.”

A lot still must happen for Notre Dame to play 14 games and reach Camp Randall Stadium.

It’s a D3 team playing at the D2 level – another highly successful season would push it all the way to D1 in 2027 – and it won’t have the overall depth as some other squads in its bracket.

“I think what we learned a little bit last year playing D2, we have really, really good talent,” Rader said. “But we don’t have numbers. To make it through the playoffs, football is a sport of attrition. You need to be able to have the guys to make it through. A 14-game season is a long season.

“We were very fortunate last year to be healthy all the way through. But it does wear on you. So, part of our discussion all the time is that we have to be able to keep guys available. That is key to be able to make the run you want to make."

There has never been a better season from a prep running back in the state, at least statistically, than the one Allen put together in 2025.

Allen set the state’s single-season record for rushing yards (3,436) and rushing touchdowns (57) while becoming just the fourth local player to be named the state’s Gatorade player of the year since the award was established in 1985.

He rushed for 200 or more yards in 10 of 13 games – he missed a Week 4 contest against Green Bay East with an injury – and scored five or more rushing TDs six times.

As good as his regular season performance was, his postseason run somehow reached another level.

He rushed for 477 yards and eight TDs in the first round against Greenfield and had 509 yards and seven scores in the second round against Slinger, the second-most yards in a single game in state history behind the 524 from Wautoma’s Nathaniel Loging in 2014.

In five playoff games, Allen rushed for 1,741 yards and 27 TDs.

There have been three running backs in the state to rush for 3,000 or more yards in a season, and two have come out of Notre Dame the last two seasons after former Tritons standout Christian Collins had 3,084 in 2024.

Allen and Collins combined to rush for 6,520 yards and 99 TDs during those two years.

Notre Dame’s preference always is to run the ball, but nobody has ever seen this level of production.

It wouldn’t be fair to expect Allen to top his numbers from last season, but there is little reason to believe he won’t have another noteworthy run to end his prep career.

“Once-in-a-lifetime having a special player like Kingston,” said Massey, who often contributed as a blocker last season to help spring Allen. “He’s a great teammate. A great leader. Very grateful to have him on this team.”

Notre Dame must replace three of its starting offensive linemen in Jack Warden, Collin Cormier and Michael Retel. But it does have a huge anchor in Flanigan, who was both the FRCC-South’s offensive and defensive lineman of the year last season.

Along with Massey at tight end, it also has gotten big contributions in the blocking game with Whitehouse at fullback.

“That’s probably been our biggest question mark,” Rader said about the offensive line. “We’ve had the running backs over the last couple years, but we have had the linemen. I would say all the guys that we are looking to step up have been challenged. Part of what we are going through right now is seeing who is going to step up to the challenge.

“We will find a way. We always do.”

Despite the 28-14 loss in the state title game to West De Pere, the Tritons were the only team to hold the Phantoms to fewer than 33 points last season and only allowed seven points in the second half.

It came after the Tritons held River Falls to six points in a semifinal, which was one of only two times the Wildcats scored fewer than 28 in a game.

They also held Rice Lake to a season-low 20 points in a quarterfinal.

Whitehouse, Marzec and Berndt were the top three leading tacklers for Notre Dame in 2025, while Massey and Flanigan led the team with four sacks apiece.

The unit could be in line for an even better season.

“I think we are going to be really good,” Massey said. “A lot of returning guys. A lot of experience across the board. The guys out there are very aggressive, flying to the ball.

“They all give great effort every day in practice.”

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Can Green Bay Notre Dame football make title game for third straight year?