Tuesday, October 15, 2024
MENOMINEE – The Menominee Maroons hosted the Calumet Copper Kings Friday evening and held off the gritty Keweenaw Peninsula team for a 48-6 win.
Though the win saw Menominee pile on enough points to start the mercy clock, Calumet gave them a fight and tested the Maroon defense’s conditioning with a second quarter drive that chewed up nearly the entire quarter.
That Maroon defense proved itself and stood its ground, never allowing a single offensive score all game. Calumets only score came off a kick return TD by Peter Eskola.
Menominee’s offense was super charged in the early goings of the game. On the first possession of the night the Maroons struck for three consecutive first downs before Tanner Theuerkauf connected with Dawson Bardowski for the 42 yard passing score.
The defense followed up the score by stopping the Copper Kings on a three and out that saw Cole Cooper get a sack on third and 11 to help end the drive.
After the punt Menominee’s Clayton Miller broke off one of the most exciting plays of the night. After taking the handoff on the first play of the drive, Miller made a cut and shed a tackler, then blasted another and another and dodged another, then shed another and finally carried two on his back before being brought down for a 44 yard gain. It seemed that nearly everyone on the defense was needed to bring down the rumbling Maroon.
A few plays later it looked as if the Maroons might stall out, facing a fourth and nine attempt from 22 yards back. But a keen Theuerkauf dropped back to pass and found a cutting Kaiden Bell in the end zone, capping off the drive with six points.
The ensuing kickoff was a touchback, helping to back up the Copper Kings. On the third play of Calumet’s possession Ted Loukus dropped back to pass and thought he had an open receiver, he was wrong, as Theuerkauf cut in front of the would be receiver for the interception, which he carried 30 yards for the pick-six.
Near the end of the first quarter Theuerkauf found Bardowski on a 30 yard pass to the end zone that saw Bardowski pull in the pass right at the pylon, giving Menominee the 26-0 lead.
Menominee’s defensive conditioning was tested on the ensuing Calumet drive, which saw Calumet run 16 plays over nearly 11 minutes of play. The drive finally stalled out after Isaiah Odom got a sack on third and seven, forcing Calumet to pass on fourth down which saw an incompletion.
It wasn’t until the 3 minutes left mark of the third quarter that Menominee struck again, doing so on a six yard scamper from Odom, bringing the Maroons to a 32-0 lead.
The next minute of play was wild, as Calumet returned a kickoff for their only score of the night, and Menominee answered with a one play 67 yard scoring rush from Miller.
Near the end of the third quarter Calumet set up to punt and saw the snap sail past the punter. The Copper Kings punter attempted to retrieve the loose ball and get the punt off but was met by Wyatt Cornell and Kaiden Bell who blocked the punt, giving Cole Cooper the opportunity to recover the loose ball.
With a short field after the blocked punt Menominee quickly found its way to its final score of the night, which came off a Komp 23 yard rush, giving the game its final score of 48-6.
