The Bluejay football team made short work of GNC Football Conference basement dweller Ashland on Friday, despite the trek north for the game.
Merrill grabbed a 42-0 lead in the first half before turning over the contest to the second- and third-string, who closed it out 49-6.
“I was real proud of our kids,” MHS coach Nick Sturm said. “After the long bus ride, and knowing we should have a mismatch, they weren’t over-confident. They definitely took the game seriously and executed well.”
The Jays took care of business with 238 rushing yards and another 158 passing.
“We ran and threw the ball fairly evenly,” Sturm said. “We threw for over 120 yards in the first half and ran for probably 180 more. We were able to mix in the run and throwing and execute pretty consistently.
“The defense played very well, too. We were able to control the line of scrimmage. We forced a number of turnovers and got the ball back in good position.”
The scoring was meted out in balanced fashion, too, with three TD’s per quarter in the first half. Alex Klug ran for six yards with 6:21 left in the first quarter, Nick Peterson hit Jake Anderson with a 31-yard strike with 1:54 remaining and Peterson dashed 11 yards with :51 to go.
With 8:46 to intermission, Mason Reinhardt ran the final 15 yards and just over a minute later, Peterson converted from seven yards. Anderson snatched another scoring pass, this one for 21 yards, with 1:15 left.
“Only once in the first half we didn’t score a touchdown,” Sturm said. When we got the ball on the first series of the game, a couple of penalties held us back.”
The Oredockers got on the board with 1:11 remaining in the third on a six-yard run by Ben Cashman. Trey Stevenson matched it with 7:43 left in the fourth, on a three-yard run.
Stevenson kicked all seven extra points.
“In the second half, we were able to get all our players in and they preformed well,” Sturm said. “There was a running clock, so it was a quick second half. But it was an opportunity for them to compete on a varsity field.”
Eight different ballcarriers picked up at least 10 yards, including: Klug (9-61); Nick Hoffmann (3-59); Peterson (4-39); Wyatt Strombom (5-20); Tyler Butler (1-18); Reinhardt (1-15); Lucas Lee (2-13); and Chaz Mootz (1-10). Peterson completed 6-of-9 passes for 132 yards and Mootz was 1-of-1 for 26 yards. Leading receivers included: Anderson (5-105); Lee (1-26); Hoffmann (1-15) and Reinhardt (1-12).
Keying the defense were: Tyler Schmidt (4 S, 2 A, 2 FC, 1 ER); Wyatt Strombom (7 S, 2 A, 1 TFL): Matt Rekowski (5 S, 1 A); Lucas Lee (4 S, 1 TFL); Ty Grunenwald (3 S, 1 FR); Dustin Dengel (2 S, 1 A, 1 TFL); Brian Stockowitz (2 S, 1 A, 1 TFL); Reinhardt (1 A, 1 FR, 1 BK); Klug (2 S, 1 TFL); Hugh Rankin (2 S, 1 A); Dalton Clayton (1 S, 3 A); and Seth Tautges (1 S, 2 A).
Merrill will host Mosinee in the Homecoming game at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.