Red Raiders’ mid-game spree knocks out Hawks in the opener

The Rib Lake-Prentice Hawks had their moments Friday, especially early and late, but the Marathon Red Raiders gashed them in the middle of the seasonopening contest and rolled to a 38-8 nonconference win. The Red Raiders scored touchdowns on four of five possessions in a stretch that started late in the first quarter and went through halftime to build an insurmountable 32-8 lead. They added a touchdown in a second half that included a 30-minute lightning delay, but were otherwise stymied by the Hawks’ defense in the final quarter and a half.

The Hawks stopped two scoring threats in the first quarter with interceptions and cut a 16-0 deficit in half with an impressive touchdown drive early in the second quarter to provide some positives from the opener.

“Defensively some of those guys I think just started getting tired,” Hawks co-head coach Jonah Campbell said. “Once they were able to start moving the ball and putting long drives together, guys started getting winded, the guys who started dropping with injuries had to come out for some plays and it gave Marathon some opportunities.”

Rib Lake-Prentice’s defense forced an immediate three and out to start the game but the Hawks muffed the punt and Marathon’s Mason Seehafer recovered to give the Red Raiders a prime scoring chance at the Hawks’ 20. A 17-yard touchdown pass from Cooper Hoeksema to Matt Annis was wiped out by a penalty and on the next play Rib Lake-Prentice cornerback Dominic Quednow intercepted a Hoeksema pass and returned it 40 yards to midfield.

Marathon sacked Hawks’ quarterback Michael Borchardt on consecutive plays to quickly ruin that possession and then drove 62 yards in six plays after the ensuing punt, connecting on three passes with the last one being a 10-yard dumpoff to Hector Pintor for the touchdown. Annis ran in the two-point try to put Marathon in front 8-0 with 3:35 left in the first quarter.

Marathon stuffed Kaden Kennedy for no gain on fourth and five and took over with good field position at its 46 and quickly threatened again. But Borchardt tipped a Hoeksema pass at the goal line and Dominick Classen caught the deflection in the end zone to give the Hawks their second big stop of the quarter.

“I thought the defense played really well early,” Campbell said. “Obviously the second quarter was a rough stretch, end of the first through the second. But it showed the scheme was working, some adjustments were made from the scrimmage that helped them play well. I know they played well at the scrimmage against Tomahawk and they kind of brought that energy into the start of the game and we obviously finished strong.”

Again, Rib Lake-Prentice went nowhere on offense, gambling on fourth and one from its own 29 and losing when Borchardt’s quarterback sneak was denied. Marathon quickly turned that into a 10-yard scoring run by Annis and a 16-0 lead with 9:51 left in the half.

“There were a couple of fourth downs we felt good about,” Campbell said. “Those were just something where we got outplayed. Talking to (assistant coach) Brad Borchardt up in the booth, he said we had it on that fourth and one play. We were prepared to call a timeout if we didn’t get a look that we liked or there was a certain blitz coming. Their linemen just outplayed our linemen and stuffed it.”

The Hawks answered with their scoring drive of 62 yards in just four plays, which included passes of 14 yards from Borchardt to Classen and to Donovan Sutherland. From Marathon’s 30, Borchardt avoided pressure by rolling to his right and then dropped an off-balance dime right into the hands of Sutherland for the touchdown. Classen powered through a would-be tackler for the two-point conversion on a swing pass to the right side and the Hawks were back in it at 16-8 with 8:10 left in the half.

But Marathon came right back, driving 66 yards on six plays to score on a 19-yard run by Annis and then going 57 yards on five plays to score on a 12-yard run by Annis to go up 32-8 with 2:33 left. Marathon threatened again in the last 20 seconds with a 61-yard pass from Hoeksema to Griffin Treankler, but Quednow barely broke up what would have been a 26-yard touchdown pass as time expired.

Marathon turned a 30-yard interception return by Tyler Underwood into a short 31-yard touchdown drive capped by a 8-yard run by Pinter with 6:04 left. That drive was interrupted by the delay, caused by a single flash of lightning at the 7:13 mark.

Much of Marathon’s damage mid-game came when the Hawks lost key players to injury. Logan Geiger’s absence on the defensive line was particularly noticeable. Linebacker Logan Schmidtfranz was out for a chunk of time, senior Jacob DiFrances was in and out at times and senior Ryan Griebel was already going to be limited to just offense, but he only lasted for a couple of plays.

The Hawks finished with 170 yards of total offense. Borchardt completed six of 14 passes for 79 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. Sutherland had his two catches for 44 yards on the touchdown drive and Classen had three catches for 27 yards. Sophomore Jonas Staroba did some tough running out of the backfield and gained 60 yards on 18 attempts. Kennedy had 31 yards in nine carries.

“We were pretty encouraged by the throwing,” Campbell said. “I know there were a few missed throws and drops as the game went on. I think we had 14 attempts. Michael threw one incompletion to start the game then he hit five completions in a row including the touchdown and the two-point conversion. We felt we could overcome some line injuries if we could keep throwing the ball like that. We had one or two overthrows on plays that were going to be quick passes and guys were open. We had a couple quick throws that were dropped. You really open the game up and get momentum if we hit those.

“Jonas runs well,” Campbell added. “The big thing is he doesn’t go down on first contact. He just keeps fighting. He can fight through the arm tackles. When you get him space, he has the ability to make guys miss. He ran tough inside and we’ll try to build off that.”

Marathon finished with 410 total yards. Annis ran for 81 yards on nine carries, while Pintor gained 80 on 13 attempts. Hoeksema was seven of 16 through the air for 154 yards.

Up next for the Hawks is another tough non-conference matchup with an old Marawood rival. The Auburndale Eagles will bring a 1-0 record into Prentice on Friday after their 76-0 demolition of overmatched Menominee Indian in their opener.

Campbell said it was hard to glean too much from that game after seeing the film as Auburndale scored on several one- or two-play drives and held Menominee Indian to minus-32 yards of offense.

“They still look like a pretty well put together football team,” he said. “Obviously they have a lot of speed and good size. It’s just hard to tell much from the film because they didn’t get a lot of resistance.”

The Eagles ran the ball 30 times in their win Friday and gained 352 yards with nine different backs carrying the ball. Quarterback Trayton Weber ran for 93 yards and two scores on just three carries to lead the way.