The Bluejay football team slammed their offense and defense into passing gear right out of the gates on Friday night.
Merrill completely dominated all phases of the game in the first half, building a 36-0 lead before surrendering a late TD just before intermission.
The Jays continued to roll throughout, finally collecting a 43-19 triumph despite time for substitution.
“It was a great way to start,” MHS coach Nick Sturm said. “The kids came ready to play. Getting up big early sure helps you.
“The defense gave us a lot of three-and-outs, and gave the offense the ball in good field position. Offensively, we didn’t make too many mistakes and were able to move it efficiently. We had a lot of quick scores. Other than one drive in the first half, we were able to score a touchdown.
“We got up big and got some other kids some experience at the varsity level.”
The Bluejays featured a balanced offense. They amassed 271 rushing yards with four backs compiling at least 50 yards-Alex Klug (14-64), Nick Peterson (12-49), Nick Hoffmann (9-56) and Mason Reinhardt (8-50)-backed up by Ty Butler (3-27), Scott Arneson (2-12) Wyatt Strombom (2-8) and Lucas Lee (1-9).
Peterson completed 4-of-9 passes for 115 yards passing, including 105 to Jake Anderson for two touchdowns and another long bomb to the three-yard mark. Hoffman caught a 10-yarder.
“We were able to run the ball and throw the ball,” Sturm said. “We had a lot of guys carry the ball. Ideally that’s what you want, a lot of guys with touches on the ball.”
It took Merrill just three plays to score it’s first touchdown, a 13-yard Reinhardt run, 44-yard bmb to Anderson and three-yard blast by Klug. After a Merrill fumble, the ‘D’ forced a three-and-out and Butler tackled the punter for a loss to get the ball back at the Hilltopper 35. After Peterson picked up nine, Klug pounded the first down. Peterson tossed a long pass to Anderson, who mishandled it but tipped it several times before making the scoring catch. Just 4:40 was off the clock with a 15-0 Merrill lead, aided by a fake PAT kick and pass from Chaz Mootz to Ben Hintze.
Peterson ran a delayed draw to cap off the next possession, and kicked the extra point for a 22-0 lead with 3:05 still left in the first.
Another three-and-out, and a solid punt return by Ty Grunenwald gave Merrill the ball on the Onalaska 44. A Reinhardt counter picked up the last half-yard on an 11-play drive, and Merrill led 29-0 with 9:08 remaining to the half.
Tyler Schmidt recovered a fumble two plays after a illegal formation penalty negated an Onalaska touchdown. Klug carried the ball untouched the last four yards of a 45-yard drive for a 36-0 lead with 1:27 left to intermission.
Onalaska’s Zayne Wicks caught a 32-yard pass for a score with just 12 seconds left to cut it to 36-6, and Alex Gumz dashed 40 yards on third down of the first second-half series to cut it to 36-12.
Merrill answered with a 69-yard drive. The Jays rolled down the field until consecutive flags made it first-and-27 from the 35. No matter, Peterson hooked up with Anderson again on the next play to push it to 43-12 with 3:30 left in the third.
The Hilltoppers would strike once more on a 33-yard pass from Ryan Williams to Nick Fruit that appeared to be at least a trap. The scoring ended with 11:14 on the clock.
Three plays showed a squad ready for the unknown. Onalaska ran a novel two-point play after its first two scores with all the blockers but the center spread wide and two running backs in the middle. Both failed. And Reinhardt jumped all over a fake punt try to give MHS great field position.
“It shows how disciplined our kids played,” Sturm said. “The coaches prepared them for any contingency and they were ready for anything.”
It wasn’t all tea and crumpets, but Sturm will take it for a first game.
“We had a number of very coachable things we saw, both offensively and defensively,” he said. “Team speed corrected some of our mistakes and, offensively, we had a couple of missed assignments, but our running backs made our blockers look better because they made guys miss.”
The Bluejays brought back most of their skill players from last year, but despite major turnover, the offensive line performed well.
“They didn’t make many mistakes and they came off the ball hard,” Sturm said. “I was very pleased with their efforts.”
Sturm also mentioned the work of three players.
“I thought Nick Hoffmann ran really hard,” he said. “He broke tackles and made nice cuts. Tyler Schmidt disrupted things. Chaz Mootz played solid at corner.”
Leading the defense were: Schmidt (5 S, 6 A, 3 TFL, 1 FF, 1 FR); Hintz (4 S, 7 A, 1 TFL); Grunenwald (4 S, 6 A); Nick Breaman (3 S, 3 A); Klug (2 S, 4 A); Brian Stockowitz (5 A, 1 TFL); Matt Rekowski (1 S, 5 A); Dustin Dengel (1 S, 5 A); and Brandon Bartz (3 S, 2 A).
Merrill will head to Menomonie for a Thursday game this week. The Indians topped Merrill 42-22 last year and opened up with a 42-0 win over Tomah last week.
“They are very good, very disciplined and very well coached,” Sturm said. “It will be a very stiff test, but a test we could do if we play our best. It should be an exciting football game.”