Milaca hosted Princeton on Friday night in the Battle for the Paddle!
Both teams looked to start the season off on the right note, in a highly anticipated game.
Each team's first possession ended without putting points on the board. The Tigers second drive however found the endzone. Cullen Drews scored on a 35 yard run outside speeding past defenders, helping his team to a 7-0 lead. Milaca's next drive showed a bunch of promise and it seemed like they were destined to score. While they didn't score a touchdown, they did have a chance for a field goal. Unfortunately, the chance at three was missed just wide right keeping the score 7-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter saw very few opportunities for either team to score. Princeton also held onto the ball for most of the quarter. As the quarter wore to it's close Princeton overcame a 2nd and long and a few other penalties to score on a Brody Kok rushing touchdown. This extended their lead 13-0 at the half.
The start of the 2nd half gave Milaca a mountain of momentum. A good kick return from Colin Marudas set the offense up in good position. Then Logan Fullerton launched a throw to Jack Patnode for a 52 yard pickup. Which set up Bryce Mehrworth for a 1 yard touchdown and with the extra point converted the Wolves only trailed by 6. The Wolves knew all they would need was a stop or two defensively to get their offense back onto the field and possibly get into position to tie or take the lead. But much like the 2nd quarter, the Tigers just ran their offense methodically down the field, taking off nearly the rest of the third quarter clock before scoring again. This time it was Drews again from one yard out, they converted the two and lead 21-7. Milaca's offense just couldn't find the same rhythm as their first drive and wound up punting the ball away. Early in the 4th, Princeton would once again score after a long drive on a 16 yard rush from Kok to push their lead 28-7.
It seemed because of all the time on the sideline the Wolves offense just couldn't get into or stay in rhythm. And their next few possessions didn't manage to get much going which resulted in the Tigers getting the ball back. The Tigers would score late in the 4th on a Ballweber 1 yard rush to make it a 35-7 finish.
Milaca certainly showed a lot of good things they'll be able to work with going into next Friday's game against Glencoe-Silver Lake.
Princeton moves to 1-0 and will host DeLaSalle next Friday.
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