This story is sponsored by: The University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County
Click here for video highlights of the game, courtesy of Kevin Kummer and allmarshfield.com.
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield football team’s season opener against Wausau West seemed destined for overtime after Keiron Howlett scored a touchdown with just more than 2 minutes left in regulation, bringing the Tigers within a point of tying the score.
However, West senior Drew Pearson busted through the line and blocked Brad Krueger’s extra point attempt to keep the Warriors in the lead. After a failed onside kick, West was able to run the clock down to 7 seconds left and closed out a 10-9 victory Friday night in a nonconference game at Beell Stadium.
Howlett rushed for 127 yards on 17 carries, 41 of which came on the Tigers’ scoring drive. Howlett closed the drive with an 18-yard touchdown run.
Marshfield outgained West 202-132, giving up just 88 yards after the Warriors scored on the opening drive of the game.
“We were missing blocks, not holding blocks, doing things to get open and our quarterback was missing those things…it was everything,” Marshfield coach Denny Goettl said. “There’s a lot of things we can work on. We know that we’re not invincible anymore and these guys can start figuring out that they need to work harder to play football with all of these teams.”
West drove 44 yards in 10 plays on its first drive following a Marshfield punt, with Kallen Bentz hauling in an 11-yard touchdown pass from David Seamon to put the Warriors ahead 7-0.
Marshfield finally moved the ball on its third drive, getting down to the West 10 before a holding penalty stalled the offense. Krueger kicked a 33-yard field goal to make it 7-3.
Marshfield was driving again late in the first half before Bentz stepped in front of a Colton Zahradka pass and returned the interception 57 yards to the Marshfield 6 with just 1:24 left in the half.
The Tigers held and Pearson kicked a 26-yard field goal with 20 seconds to go, making it 10-3 in favor of West at the half.
Marshfield had its opening drive of the third quarter thwarted by another interception and drove to the West 7 midway through the fourth quarter before a sack ended the drive.
Finally the Tigers got on the board when Howlett had runs of 23 and 18 yards to cap a 38-yard drive following a 22-yard punt return by Daulton Varsho.
“We started to figure things out, got those jitters out of our system,” Goettl said of the defensive performance. “We just were missing some blocks on offense, not giving our backs room to run, missing some throws, things like that. It’s a good week to go back and look at film and start getting better.”
Marshfield wraps up its nonconference portion of its schedule with a game at Wausau West next Friday.
Warriors 10, Tigers 9
Wausau West 7 3 0 0 – 10
Marshfield 0 3 0 6 – 9
First Quarter
WW – Kallen Bentz 11 pass from David Seamon (Drew Pearson kick), 5:15.
Second Quarter
M – Brad Krueger 33 field goal, 9:44.
WW – Pearson 28 field goal, 0:20.
Fourth Quarter
M – Keiron Howlett 18 run (kick blocked), 2:08.
Team Statistics
First downs: Wausau West 6, Marshfield 11.
Rushing (att-yards): Wausau West 33-41; Marshfield 34-150.
Passing (comp-att-yards-int): Wausau West 10-12-91-0; Marshfield 7-21-52-2.
Penalties: Wausau West 4-42; Marshfield 6-35.
Fumbles (total-lost): Wausau West 0-0; Marshfield 1-0.
Individual Statistics
Rushing: WW, Jake Whalen 9-30, Kallen Bentz 8-15, Jacob Martin 7-10, Jake Kraimer 3-8, Curtis Baine 1-6, Drew Pearson 1-0, David Seamon 4-minus 28. M, Keiron Howlett 17-127, Caleb Alexander 10-30, Travis Lutz 1-2, Colton Zahradka 6-minus 8.
Passing: WW, Seamon 10-12-91-0. M, Zahradka 7-21-52-2.
Receiving: WW, Bentz 3-21, Dalton Decker 2-10, Austin Bates 1-23, Kou Thao 1-16, Kyle Nickel 1-9, Jack Radenz 1-7, Martin 1-5. M, Jace Krasselt 2-28, Kegan Fassler 2-10, Brad Krueger 1-9, Lutz 1-4, Alexander 1-1.
Punting: WW, Decker 7-38.4 avg. M, Craig Zalizniak 4-32.0 avg.
Interceptions (defense): WW, Bentz, Ben Kostroski.
Sacks (defense): WW, Nickel, Logan Dennison, Brad Bisgrove. M, Zalizniak, Ian Pillai, Nate Peterson.
Records: Wausau West 1-0; Marshfield 0-1.