By Brian Kalish
October 12, 2012
Marshfield– After suffering a tough loss to Menasha last week, the Marshfield Tigers rebounded with a big offensive and defensive effort and toppled the previously undefeated SPASH Panthers in convincing fashion on Friday night by the final score of 42-28. With the win, Marshfield and SPASH end the regular season with identical 6-1 records and share the VFA-South Conference title.
Marshfield benefited from two big second half interceptions to put SPASH away after the Panthers had clawed to within three points in the third quarter.
Tigers’ running backs Riley Gebelein (113 rushing yards, 2 touchdowns) and Keiron Howlett (175 rushing yards, 2 touchdowns) and quarterback Bo Howard supplied the offensive fireworks for Marshfield after the Tigers got off to a rocky start.
On the opening play of the game, a SPASH kickoff, the Tigers return man fumbled the ball and SPASH recovered. The Panthers capitalized when Zach Pozorski punched through Marshfield’s defense for a 11 yard touchdown to give SPASH a 6-0 lead.
The early turnover would be a sign of things to come as both teams had trouble with ball security in the first half.
Marshfield’s first touchdown came with 3:02 in the first quarter when Keiron Howlett found pay dirt to stake the Tigers to a 10-6 lead.
Marshfield gobbled up a SPASH fumble late in the first half and Howard made the Panthers pay, as he scored a rushing touchdown to give the Tigers a 17-6 lead at halftime.
SPASH seemed to be content to feed Pozorski in the first half, but came out in the second half throwing the ball. The change in strategy was effective as SPASH quarterback Eric Zelhofer picked apart the Tigers’ secondary and marched his team into Marshfield territory. On 4th and 3 at the 16 yard line, Zelhofer connected with Pozorski on a swing pass that resulted in a touchdown to bring the score to 17-12 with 8:06 in the third quarter.
Marshfield, who had stellar performances on special teams all night, fought back. On the ensuing kickoff, Marshfield’s Ryan Trierweiler dashed down the right sideline and was tackled just short of the end zone. With their backs against the wall, SPASH’s defense came up big on the Tigers’ next offensive play when Gebelein fumbled and SPASH recovered.
After Marshfield’s defense stopped SPASH, Gebelein got the call on first down at the SPASH 25 yard line and eluded three would-be tacklers to score his first touchdown of the game and put his team up 23-12 with 5:37 remaining in the third quarter.
SPASH’s offense answered with another touchdown on a swing pass to Pozorski, this time from 32 yards out, to bring the Panthers within 3 points at 3:52 in the third.
“I need to talk to coach McAdams about how they run that,” joked Marshfield head coach Dennis Goettl of SPASH’s swing pass to Pozorski that resulted in two Panthers’ touchdowns. ”We don’t know how to stop that play.”
SPASH had pulled to within 20-23, but that’s as close as they would get.
Howard took command of the Tigers’ offense and made two brilliant plays on the Tigers’ next drive, including completions to Trierweiler and tight end Kane Seubert, respectively, with SPASH defenders draped all over him. On first down and goal at the four yard line, Howard connected with Seubert in the back of the end zone on a pass with pinpoint accuracy for a touchdown.
With Marshfield’s offense clicking, the Tigers’ defense got into a groove as well, grabbing interceptions on consecutive SPASH drives to deflate the Panthers and hinder any hope of a quick Panthers comeback.
“Turnovers were costly,” said SPASH head coach Pete McAdams.
With a little over a minute left in the fourth quarter, Gebelein scored on a 10 yard run to put the game out of reach.
“I felt great running out there tonight,” Gebelein said. ”The offensive line was doing a great job of blocking for me. Everything on offense was clicking.”
Goettl was pleased with how his team responded after getting hammered by Menasha in week 7.
“We talked about will and we talked about heart,” Goettl said. ”We talked about coming back after a big loss and proving something to yourself and proving something to each other. As a staff, we worked our tails off this week. We came back hard this week. My staff is awesome.”
Meanwhile, it was a disappointing end of the regular season for SPASH, who had planned to leave Marshfield in sole possession of the conference title.
“It’s a bad feeling,” said McAdams. ”We’ve had a lot of close games throughout the season and the kids have found a way to come out with a win at the end. There’s been a lot of elation at the end of our games this season. So to get beat in the fashion that we got beat tonight, I think this says a lot about Marshfield. We knew they were a good team. We wish them well in the post season.”
Both SPASH and Marshfield will enter WIAA playoff action next week. Pairings for the first round of the playoffs will be announced Saturday afternoon.
