By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
On Friday night the Merrill football team traveled to Lakeland for a conference match up. Merrill would strike first, however Lakeland was able to match every score as Merrill lost 30-18.
Early on in the first quarter things were looking good for Merrill as they drove the ball down field and scored a 27 yard touchdown on a throw from Quinn Steckbauer to running back Holden Smith. Later in the quarter Lakeland would score, but miss the point after, as Merrill held on to their lead of 7-6. With a minute left in the first, kicker Hunter Wallace connected on a 33 yard field goal to give Merrill a 10-6 lead. With only 25 seconds on the clock in the first quarter Lakeland would score on a 49 yard passing play to give them a 12-10 lead.
Following a scoreless second quarter Lakeland would come out of halftime and connect on a 25 yard touchdown throw and catch, giving them an 18-10 advantage.
The Jays would tie the game in the fourth quarter with a one yard touchdown run by fullback Dominic Leistikow, with the two point conversion finding success, to bring the score to 18-18. A minute later Lakeland would score on an 86 yard passing play to regain the lead 24-18. With just over a minute left in the game Lakeland connected again on a long passing play, this time for 50 yards and a touchdown, giving them the 30-18 lead and win.
Dominic Leistikow led the Jays offense with 124 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries. Hunter Hintze had 10 carries and would find himself 55 yards on the ground. As a whole, Merrill’s offense was only able to gain 250 yards in the game, to Lakeland’s 387.
Kole Meyer and Piersen Pyan led the Merrill defense with seven tackles each, with Meyer coming up with one sack and Pyan getting one tackle for a loss. Rob Oestreich came away with six tackles on the game and Jackson Vander Velde ended the game with five.
With this loss Merrill now moves to 1-5 overall, with a conference record of 0-3. The Jays will look to right the ship on Saturday as they host the Hodags of Rhinelander for homecoming at 1:30 p.m.