The Montague Wildcats scored 14 unanswered fourth quarter points on Friday night to edge out the North Muskegon Norsemen 27-26 in a Western Michigan Conference football game.
After entering the fourth quarter down 26-13, Wildcats’ quarterback Jacob Buchberger threw a seven yard touchdown pass to Zachary VanVleet with nine minutes remaining to cut the deficit to 26-20.
Buchberger broke an 85 yard run to give Montague a 27-26 lead with 4:31 remaining in the game.
The Wildcats managed to hold on to their one-point lead.
Montague (6-0, 5-0) started the scoring on Friday night when Cameron Brayman scored on a 40 yard run.
The Norse (1-5, 0-5) responded with a one yard rushing touchdown from Vernonell Smith to tie the game up 7-7 after one quarter.
Montague scored on a nine yard run from Eddie Caviedes early in the second quarter to go up 13-7 after a missed point after.
The Norse responded 20 seconds later when Erick Bleakley threw a 43 yard touchdown pass to Ben Garcia to take a 14-13 lead.
Smith found the end zone twice in the third quarter, from 19 yards and 23 yards out, to give the North Muskegon a 26-14 lead.
Brayman led the Montague attack with 188 yards on 17 carries while Buchberger added 155 yards on 13 carries.
Bleakley led North Muskegon with 199 yards on 13 of 21 passing with one touchdown. Smith finished with 138 yards on 27 carries and three touchdowns.
Coach Pat Collins hopes that his Wildcats learned a lesson on Friday night.
“Hopefully it’s a lesson learned,” he said. “N0rth Muskegon did a great job tonight. Our guys have to be ready every week, we can’t take anything for granted. It’s rigorous and hard work but we proved tonight we can handle it.”
Quit giving me heart attacks, Montague! Get 'er dine earlier and decisively! :)