By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
On Friday night the Merrill football team hosted the Ashland Oredockers in a conference match up. Merrill would score first giving them an early 7-0 lead, however Ashland would respond with four straight touchdowns to take a commanding lead that Merrill was unable to come back from.
In the first quarter Merrill took a one touchdown lead on Ashland with a three yard run by fullback Dominic Leistikow, ending in the endzone. Hunter Wallace would add on the extra point, drilling the field goal to give Merrill the 7-0 advantage.
The second quarter of play saw a big shift in momentum, as Ashland scored a touchdown on a two yard run and made a two point conversion to give themselves the 8-7 lead. Later in the quarter Ashland would strike again, this time on a 12 yard run to the endzone. The Oredockers would go for two again and convert to take a 16-7 lead.
Coming out of halftime Ashland would add on another touchdown on a 74 yard run, converting on another two point attempt to make the score 24-7. The Oredockers later extended their lead to 32-7 on a two yard touchdown run and yet another two point conversion.
The Jays’ would try to make a fourth quarter comeback, as they scored a touchdown on an 11 yard run from Leistikow to make the score 14-32. Another Merrill touchdown with 3:30 left in the game brought the score to 20-32, which would be the final score as Ashland took the win over Merrill.
The Merrill offense was led by fullback Dominic Leistikow who ran for 121 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. Quarterback Quinn Steckbauer would add on 83 yards and one touchdown on 14 carries.
The Bluejays defense did a good job taking the ball away, as they forced three Ashland turnovers. Caleb Timm and Quinn Steckbauer would each cause a fumble, with Ethan Nowack and Chase Bonnell being the players to recover them. Bonnell would also get an interception to go along with his two tackles in the game. Jackson Vander Velde led the Jays in tackles with eight for the game. Zack Iribarren would come away with seven tackles, Rob Oestreich and Caleb Timm would each end with five and Holden Smith, Kole Meyer and Piersen Pyan would all finish the game with four.
With this loss Merrill now moves to 1-4 on the year, and 0-2 in conference play. The Jays will have an opportunity to better their record with a conference game against Lakeland on Friday, at Lakeland Union High School.