The Bluejay football team knew their season opener has the potential to be the toughest game of the year, and nothing they saw Friday night at Jay Stadium immediately dispelled that notion.
The state’s 5th-ranked Menomonie Mustangs jumped out to a 21-0 lead by the 6:09 mark of the first quarter and eventually pushed it to 42-7 early in the third. Merrill quarterback Nick Peterson sprinted for his second and third plays of 50+ yards to cut it to a more manageable 42-22 in the fourth quarter.
“Obviously we were a little shell-shocked,” new MHS head coach Nick Sturm said. “They are a tough football team. They are extremely talented. If they don’t have a lot of injuries, they are going to do very well.
“I thought our kids were resilient. They battled back despite getting down so far so fast. I was proud of their efforts. They had a positive attitude and they started to figure some things out. We’re so young and playing such a veteran squad had us a little shell-shocked.”
It didn’t help that Merrill fumbled on the second play from scrimmage and Menomonie scooped it up and carried it to an extremely quick score. Or that the Mustangs pulled the old double-reverse flea flicker out of their bag of tricks after Merrill had picked up a lone first down on the ensuing possession. Luke Stanley scored from 36 yards on the latter, while All-State linebacker James Gates had the 23-yard fumble return.
Dakota Paulson added two more TD passes-of 8 and 15 yards-to give Menomonie a 28-0 lead with 3:28 left in the half.
The Bluejays stemmed the rush when Nick Peterson dashed 67 yards before being caught at the one-yard line. Disaster appeared to strike again when the next ball was fumbled, but Coleton Bloch recovered it in the end zone for a score with 1:41 to go to halftime.
The Mustangs kept airing it out mixed with a potent run game, however, and Dan Jacques-who finished with 145 yards on 10 carries-dashed 36 yards for a tally 37 seconds before intermission for a 35-7 lead.
Menomonie pushed it to 42-7 in the first four minutes of the third with a 15-yard Caleb Goettl run, and both defenses turned it up a notch. But Peterson took a keeper 46 yards up the visiting sideline with 3:42 left in the game to break through that ice.
Peterson raced down the home sideline before cutting back through the middle for a final score with 1:32 left. Alex Klug stuck the ball over the end line on a two-point try to push Merrill to 22 points.
“As the game went on, Nick started making better reads,” Sturm said. “He took command of the huddle and his leadership showed.”
Despite the lopsided start, Sturm saw several positive attributes.
“I thought Ben Hintze made a lot of plays at linebacker,” he said. “Our physical presence improved as the game went on. Our offensive line fired off the ball.”
Still, Sturm wants to see much more.
“We’ve got to continue to work on our consistency,” he noted. “We had way too many penalties and too many mistakes. That happens with a young ballclub.
“Just to get more experience and more reps this week is critical. We don’t have a lot of plays, we just need to execute them better.
“Defense is all about pursuing and leveraging the ball. Offense is about making sure you’re blocking the right guys and making the right reads.”
Peterson led the Bluejay offense with 169 yards rushing on 9 attempts. Klug (10-21) Trey Stevenson (5-21) and Nick Hoffmann (3-9) added to the total.
Peterson also handled all the kicking duties, making both PAT kick attempts and hammering several rugby-style punts deep into Menomonie territory. He booted a 67-yarder to the Mustang one in the third quarter and had four for 183 yards total.
Sturm is counting on reinforcements for the next game, including sophomore running back Mason Reinhardt.
“We’re going to have four kids back that will make a big difference,” he said. “We’ll be a little better able to match up with Medford this week.”