Journal Sentinel plays of the week nominees for Aug. 31-Sept. 5, 2026

Can you believe it? We’re three weeks into the 2026 high school football season already. Let’s take a look at some of the top plays and moments from the week that was.

You can help us select the Milwaukee-area play of the week by choosing from one of our nominees in the above video.

You can vote from now until Saturday, Sept. 12, at noon for your favorite play from this past week. Now that the fall season has officially begun, future play of the week polls will also include highlights from other fall sports, along with football, and you can be a part of that.

We now a reader-submitted submission tool officially on our Preps Plus portion of the Journal Sentinel website. The location to upload your clips are under the top banner that’s labeled “Upload Your Video“. It’s a four-step process that will allow you to upload clips from the week across all fall sports. The clips must be trimmed and uploaded to be 30 seconds or shorter in the proper formatting to be eligible for selection. Please submit your clips by the end of the day on Mondays to make sure your clip is potentially included to be a nominee.

Without further adieu, here’s the five nominees from the final week of August into the first few days of September.

Joel Perez, sr., Kenosha Indian Trail: It was a tough night at the office for the senior quarterback and the previously unbeaten Hawks in a 55-18 blowout loss to Kenosha Bradford, but Perez showed some flashes in this one, including an absolutely insane throw rolling and fading back to his right for a completion to Nolen Quiroz that would lead to a touchdown.

Anthony Vetta, jr., Arrowhead: The Warhawks sent a huge message in their 34-14 victory over Catholic Memorial last Thursday night in Waukesha. Vetta and the defense played its part, shutting out the CMH offense in the second half, including this crucial interception that halted the home side’s momentum seemingly for good after this sequence.

Ethan Hans, sr., Lake Country Lutheran: The senior recently became the school’s all-time receptions leader and followed up that accolade with this punt return touchdown in LCL’s 36-6 rout of Shoreland Lutheran this past Friday night.

Dustin Roach, sr., Catholic Memorial: The first half of CMH’s loss to Arrowhead last week looked promising. The Crusaders got Wisconsin commit Dustin Roach back in action and the future Badger caught a 38-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Dalton Steinke in what was an entertaining first 24 minutes of action.

Jacob Kleutsch, so., Kenosha Bradford: The sophomore had himself quite a performance in Bradford’s 55-18 beatdown of Kenosha Indian Trail last Friday. Not only did Kleutsch pick off a pass on a poorly-executed screen play, he recovered a fumble on a kickoff and returned this sack fumble for a score for the Red Devils in the win.