It was another explosive offensive night as Manistee rolls over Montague

 

MANISTEE – Just one week after crushing Shelby under an avalanche of points, the Manistee football team unleashed its growing offensive firepower against Montague and blasted the Wildcats, 65-32 in its final home game Friday night.

 

It was the final West Michigan Conference Lakes Division game for both schools, and Senior Night for Manistee.

 

The Mariners, who honored their seven seniors with their final walk up and down the Mariner Field turf after the game, got things started on defense when Braylen Zimmerman gathered in a tipped pass and returned the interception 51 yards to the house for a touchdown and an 8-0 lead with 7:27 left in the first quarter.

 

Junior quarterback Dayvion Neal-Berry moved the Mariners down the field through the air on their next series after forcing a three-and-out, leading to a 10-yard touchdown pass to Trevor Haag, and with 2:30 remaining in the opening stanza and Manistee led, 16-0.

 

Montague simply couldn’t slow down Manistee’s offense.

 

“I thought it was all going to depend on how we came out of the locker room,” Manistee coach Alvin Rischel said. “I thought our kids came out with a little bit of swagger about them, which is something we haven’t had all season. We’ve started to develop some, and it helps when you can come out and get a turnover and right away turn that into six points, and then kind of build off of that.”

 

Rischel, for the most part, liked what he saw from his defensive unit.

 

“You know, I would have liked to have seen a couple more stops tonight, but we did force four turnovers, we got stops when we needed to,” he said. “Offensively, I can’t say enough about the job the boys did. Also coach (Troy) Nezki and coach (Jason) Kaminski for having them ready. They did a heck of a job this week. I just felt like we really controlled the ball on offense tonight.”

 

Montague finally notched its first score with 11:54 remaining in the second quarter to make it a 16-6 game, but the Mariners hit the Wildcats with another lightning bolt. Neal-Berry fired a 50-yard strike to tight end Ean Guenthardt for a 24-6 lead with 9:23 on the second-quarter clock.

 

Montague started to flex its own offensive muscle and trimmed the lead to 24-20 with back-to-back touchdowns late in the second quarter to get back in the game.

 

While the Mariners might have been slightly stunned by the quick scores, they didn’t stay that way for long.

 

Neal-Berry pitched a short toss to Kott spinning off the left end, and the speedy halfback outran the Wildcat secondary to compete the 60-yard play. He then ran another one in from 14 yards out with just 5 seconds to go in the first half, and Manistee jumped out to a 36-20 lead at the break.

 

Manistee then took the second-half kickoff and went on a steady march down the field that ate up the clock, and kept the Montague offense on the sidelines that was finally capped by a 3-yard run from Landin Sowa that stretched the Mariner lead to 44-20 after holding the ball for almost eight minutes

 

“We’ve got some talented kids,” Rischel said. “We’ve got the right mixture of speed and talent. Up front, I thought we did a really good job tonight of controlling the line and opening some holes. And we hit some really big passes tonight, too. Anytime you’re running a T-offense, if you can throw for almost 200 yards, you’re in pretty good shape. Kaden is a special kid. He’s a great athlete. He’s one of the leaders on this team.”

 

Kott finished the night with 158 yards and two scores on 14 carries for the Mariners, while adding nine receptions for 109 yards. Haag scored twice and had 50 yards on nine attempts and Sowa also had two touchdowns and rushed for 35 yards on 12 touches.

 

Neal-Berry was 9-of-13 passing for 196 yards and a touchdown.

 

Defensive leaders were Sowa with 11 tackles and a tackle for loss, Neall-Berry with 11 tackles, Haag seven tackles and a tackle for loss, Wyatt Protasiewicz had a fumble recovery and Guenthardt picked off a pass.

 

Manistee closes out the regular season next Friday at Mason County Central.

 

Eli Peterson was 8-of-18 passing for 156 yards and one touchdown for the Wildcats.

 

Ryver Jaraka had three receptions for 87 yards and the score. Kellen Francis also caught three balls and gained 43 yards.

 

Devlin Dean led the Wildcats with 88 yards rushing on 19 carries with two touchdowns, while Jarka gained 51 yards on 10 attempts with a TD. Peterson ran for one touchdown while gaining 27 yards on five touches.

 

Defensive leaders for the Wildcats included Caleb Schmidt with seven stops, including six solo hits, Jarka had six tackles and Isaac French five stops.

 

Manistee improved to 5-3 overall and ended its West Michigan Conference Lakes Division schedule with a 3-3 record. The Mariners travel to Mason County Central for its final regular-season game Friday.

 

The Wildcats fell to 3-5 on the season and wound up tied with Manistee at 3-3 in the conference. Montague travels to Ravenna for its last regular-season game.