PRENTICE 46, RIB LAKE 32 - Late offense not quite enough at Prentice; Flambeau game is off

It’s been a football season filled with adversity for Rib Lake, and if Friday’s game in Prentice was the end of it, the Redmen went down fighting one last time.

Injuries continued to mount in Friday’s game, including the loss of captain and quarterback Talon Scheithauer to a hip injury early in the third quarter, yet the Redmen still nearly dug out of an 18-point fourth quarter deficit before eventually falling 46-32.

Rib Lake on Tuesday announced it was forfeiting its homecoming game this Friday to undefeated Flambeau and next week’s finale at Athens could be next.

“We have 11 kids left,” head coach Austin Edwards said Tuesday. “We made the decision today to forfeit against Flambeau.”

The Redmen got outmuscled at the line of scrimmage for much of Friday’s game with Prentice. The Buccaneers’ bruising senior running back/quarterback Aidan Hause was tough to stop, amassing 208 yards on 28 carries and scoring five rushing touchdowns, plus he had what ultimately was the dagger on a 34-yard interception return for a touchdown that made it 38-20 with 11:07 left in the game.

But the Redmen turned the fourth quarter into a must-watch football, scoring twice behind sophomore back-up quarterback Ty Niemi and sophomore receiver Josiah Mann to get within six, plus Rib Lake got the ball back twice with a chance to at least tie it. The second possession ended with Rib Lake giving up the ball on downs at its own 25 and Hause scored on the next play with 1:33 left to seal it.

“I can’t say enough good things,” Edwards said. “Offensively we moved the ball and I truly believed we could move the ball on a lot of teams.”

It just might not have been expected when yet another of the team’s key weapons was lost when Scheithauer went down on an awkward tackle after a short gain to Prentice’s 15 with the Redmen trailing 24-14 at the time.

Niemi, who got some productive snaps in the previous week’s 80-14 blowout of Winter-Birchwood, stepped in and two plays later, hit Mann with a 13-yard touchdown pass that got Rib Lake within 24-20.

The Scheithauer injury also robbed Rib Lake of one of its leading tacklers, but after a 26-yard run by Hause to start Prentice’s next possession, the Redmen got a stop. Rib Lake also was stopped and Prentice blocked Niemi’s punt and took over on Rib Lake’s 48-yard line. Hause ripped off a 37yard run and eventually scored from the three to put the Bucs up 32-20. Hause’s pick-six followed.

But then the Niemi to Mann connection got rolling. Mann pulled in a one-handed 22-yard reception to start Rib Lake’s next drive and he ended it by catching a 28yard jump ball in the end zone.

Rib Lake recovered an onside kick and Mann got behind a Prentice defender and caught a 29-yard touchdown pass to make it 38-32.

Edwards said the first jump ball wasn’t exactly the play that was called, but he knew the Redmen might be on to something.

“They came back to the sideline and I was like ‘hey, I don’t know what you guys just did, but I’m thinking if you put that ball up there again Josiah is going to catch it with that guy on him,” Edwards said. “He was not as athletic as Josiah. We just kind of beat that play to death in desperation. It worked.”

The Redmen got a turnover but the Bucs got the ball right back with an interception. They drove deep into Rib Lake territory, but the Redmen recovered a Zachary Starkey fumble at the 9-yard line to keep hope alive.

Ethan Cook took over at quarterback for that possession as Edwards wanted to set up a trick play he had in his back pocket. Cook lobbed a ball that Niemi caught for a 25-yard completion to jumpstart the drive, but two plays later another long completion to Niemi was nullified by a 15-yard penalty that killed the drive, leading to Hause’s clinching touchdown. Niemi had snuck over toward the sideline acting as if he was coming to talk to Edwards and no one had covered him at the snap.

“The explanation I was given was that it was a gimmick play, a fake substitution and you can’t do that,” Edwards said.

Niemi finished 12 for 26 for 146 yards and three touchdowns. He was intercepted three times as well, but Edwards said his effort was impressive.

“Those were plays that we had in the book that he had never really practiced,” Edwards said. “He went in there and he was the team MVP for sure for us.”

Before leaving, Scheithauer was nine for 12 for another 83 yards. The Redmen finished with 254 passing yards. Scheithauer also ran for 74 yards on 12 carries and Cook had 57 yards on 12 carries before injuring his arm late in the game. Mann caught eight passes for 113 yards and three second-half touchdowns. Cook caught six for 54 yards and freshman tight end Grant Beard continued to make plays, catching four passes for 41 yards.

Beard also came in motion, took a snap under center and scored from 2 yards out for Rib Lake’s first touchdown. Scheithauer tied it at 8-8 by running in the two-point conversion. That answered a 6yard touchdown run by Hause on the game’s opening drive. Hause scored on runs of 1 and 3 yards before a Scheithauer interception led to his scrambling 13-yard touchdown on the last play of the first half.

“We fought hard in that second half,” Edwards said. “We were getting outmuscled up front. Then losing Talon, that really hurt us as well. Offensively guys were making good reads. I go back to Ty and Josiah. I would call a play and Ty would audible it at the line of scrimmage. After a while Prentice started realizing we were going to throw the ball over the top of them, so they were going to play even farther back. Ty would audible to a curl route. Josiah remembered the audible, which we haven’t practiced in a long time. All of a sudden we’re running curl routes and Grant Beard is running drag routes. These guys are running the offense the way it’s supposed to be run without Talon and without any practice with each other. I was like, ‘this is really good to see.’” The loss put Rib Lake at 2-4 overall and 2-3 in the Northwoods East Conference, which is now Flambeau’s to lose after the Falcons surprisingly crushed Phillips 58-8 on Thursday.

“When push comes to shove, if anybody went through the stuff our football program went through this year, I don’t know if there’s a better outcome for how the season is going to end,” Edwards said.