Everything was right in the world for Ashwaubenon – a 9-0 record, the #1 seed in their portion of the Division 2 bracket, the #4 ranking in the state, hosting lowly Merrill, the #8 seed, 6-3 runner-up team in the Great Northern Football Conference.
Boost that a hundred-fold when it was announced that Green Bay Packers’ President Mark Murphy would attend the game to present a $250,000 matching funds check for improvements to their already top-notch artificial-turf football facility.
The only thing left on the Jaguars plate? Crush the Bluejays in Level 1 of the football playoffs on their way to bigger and better things.
But I guess no one told the MHS boys to play the role of sacrificial lamb.
From the game’s opening drives to the pass break-up in the end zone on the final play that could have tied or won it, the Jaguars knew they were in a game. Ashwaubenon finally escaped with a 21-14 win.
“It definitely kept you on the edge of your seat,” MHS coach Nick Sturm said. “It wasn’t the result we like, but it was one heck of a football game.”
Merrill cut the deficit to 21-14 on a super drive in the final 1:41. the Jays converted a 3rd-and-18 caused by a sack with a dual-possession catch from Chaz Mootz at the Ashwaubenon 29. A roughing the passer penalty, then an obvious push in the back of Jake Anderson end zone made it first down on the 7. Nick Peterson completed a big pass to Mootz on the next play with just 21 ticks left.
The Bluejays’ Ben Hintze recovered the onside kick after it bounced off a Jaguar. Merrill broke out the old hook-and-ladder play with Peterson to Anderson and lateral – really a hand-off – to Mason Reinhardt, who dashed to the Ashwaubenon 29 before cutting out-of-bounds to save 6.3 seconds on the clock..
Peterson avoided a game-killing sack by passing near a receiver, leaving just .5 on the clock, then threw a jump ball into the end zone for Mootz. It appeared he was latching onto the ball when it was stripped free on the way down.
“It was a close one,” Sturm said. “You just never know what’s going to happen. We tell the kids to play to the very end. We had to take some risks because we didn’t execute our offense when we were down in their zone.
“It was an opportunity, but so many other times we didn’t execute. There are about five times in a football game that separate two relatively evenly-matched teams, and we came up a play or two short.
“I’m proud of the kids’ effort. They never gave up, they just kept going. They don’t have to look back in 20 years and say ‘What if?’ They left it all out there.”
Had Mootz been able to hang on?
“If we had scored at the end, I would have gone for two,” Sturm said succinctly, likely subscribing to the theory that it’s better to win outright on the road than go to overtime, especially as the underdog.
It’s hard to imagine that Merrill even had a shot at the end, considering they lost the turnover battle four-to-two and had a drive shut down with two cracks from the Ashwaubenon one.
Alex Klug was tripped up on the very brink on the first attempt, and the exchange was fumbled on fourth down on the fourth play of the fourth quarter.
After a three-and-out for the Jaguars, Merrill got the ball back on the Ashwaubenon 37, but a holding call and interception switched the field.