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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
WESTON – Marshfield showed the potential it has to be an explosive offensive and stout defensive team this season, but it left some room for improvement as well after beating D.C. Everest 35-21 in its football season opener Friday night at Stiehm Stadium.
The Tigers outgained Everest 389-258 and scored a defensive touchdown, but also turned the ball over four times against their former Wisconsin Valley Conference rivals.
Senior quarterback Elliot Ashbeck threw for 221 yards and three touchdowns for the Tigers, hitting Jordan Litwatis, Austin Littmann and Brandon Brown for scores. Junior linebacker Ross Zillman returned an interception 26 yards for a touchdown and running back Riley Gebelein rushed for 154 yards and a score for Marshfield.
“It’s that first game and you never really know what to expect,” Ashbeck said. “We know what we have to improve on. I think we did a lot more positive than we did negative. If we can cut those few mistakes out – one underthrown ball, fumbles. The defense shown it’s a brick wall, the offensive line did a great job, made great adjustments. When we didn’t make mistakes, we’re a good football team.”
Marshfield’s offense looked impressive from the start.
The Tigers took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards in nine plays for a touchdown. Ashbeck completed all three of his pass attempts on the drive. He hit Litwatis for a 44-yard completion and later they connected again with Litwatis hauling in a 16-yard touchdown pass to put Marshfield up 7-0.
A poor special teams play by D.C. Everest set up Marshfield’s second score midway through the second quarter. Everest punter Jacob Daigle punted the ball into his offensive line, allowing the Tigers to take over at the Evergreens’ 24.
Ashbeck scrambled 13 yards on third-and-goal from the 14, setting up Gebelein’s 1-yard touchdown plunge to give the Tigers a 14-0 lead.
Everest caught the break it was looking for just before the half. The Tigers were driving to potentially add to their lead in the closing seconds when Ashbeck was sacked and fumbled. Gage Dunwoody picked up the loose ball at the 50 and scampered downfield, then pitched the ball to teammate Kaleb Matz at the 5 and he took it the rest of the way for a touchdown just 6 seconds before halftime. Daigle kicked the extra point to cut Marshfield’s lead to 14-7 at the break.
The Evergreens couldn’t capitalize on the momentum, however.
Marshfield forced a punt on Everest’s opening possession and the Tigers needed just four plays to drive in for another score. Ashbeck hit Jordan Schecklman with a 20-yard pass, Gebelein had runs of 13 and 5 yards, and Brown caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from Ashbeck to make it 21-7.
Everest responded with a six-play, 80-yard drive. A 53-yard pass play from Luke Heller to Eric Schwan set up a 16-yard touchdown pass to Brent Esser that brough the Evergreens to within a touchdown again.
Marshfield’s defense took over from there.
Trevor Peterson sacked Heller and forced a fumble that was recovered by Matt Scheel at the Everest 35. Three plays later, Ashbeck tossed a 21-yard touchdown pass to Littmann to make it 28-14.
On Everest’s first play following the kickoff, Zillman picked off Heller and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown to give the Tigers a 21-point lead.
“Scoring points is great and getting a ‘Pick 6’ by our defense is pretty impressive, but you’ll hear every coach tell you that turnovers will kill you and obviously it could have hurt us tonight,” Marshfield coach Denny Goettl said. “We’ve got to hang on to the football. It’s slippery, everyone’s sweaty, but you still have to play football. We’re lucky we came out on top in this one.”
Everest cut Marshfield’s lead to 14 on a 1-yard touchdown run by Chris Maki with 8:43 left in the game, but the Evergreens had a pair of drives stall and the Tigers were able to pull off a road win at Stiehm Stadium for the second straight season.
“Our strength is our defense and those guys (linebackers Zillman and Justin Sternweis),” Goettl said. “We’re going to work hard on offense and clean some things up. Once we start getting our receivers with the quarterback and the quarterback with the receivers, and guys hanging on to the football, we’re going to get better each week. A win against the Green Guys is pretty impressive for us anytime.”
Marshfield hosts Wausau West in its home opener on Aug. 26.
Tigers 35, Evergreens 21
Marshfield 7 7 21 0 – 35
D.C. Everest 0 7 7 7 – 21
FIRST QUARTER
M – Jordan Litwatis 16 pass from Elliot Ashbeck (Gus Utech kick), 8:07.
SECOND QUARTER
M – Riley Gebelein 1 run (Utech kick), 6:07.
D – Kaleb Matz 50 fumble return (Jacob Daigle kick), :06.
THIRD QUARTER
M – Brandon Brown 20 pass from Ashbeck (Utech kick), 8:54.
D – Brent Esser 16 pass from Luke Heller (Daigle kick), 6:48.
M – Austin Littmann 21 pass from Ashbeck (Utech kick), 2:31.
M – Ross Zillman 26 interception return (Utech kick), 2:22.
FOURTH QUARTER
D – Chris Maki 1 run (Daigle kick), 8:43.
TEAM STATISTICS
First downs: Marshfield 16; D.C. Everest 8.
Rushing (att-yards): Marshfield 41-168; D.C. Everest 39-82.
Passing (comp-att-yards-int): Marshfield 14-27-221-1; D.C. Everest 7-19-175-1.
Penalties: Marshfield 3-15; D.C. Everest 7-55.
Fumbles (total-lost): Marshfield 3-3; D.C. Everest 6-2.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: M, Riley Gebelein 33-154, Elliot Ashbeck 6-8, Shawn Weber 1-5, Austin Littmann 1-1. DC, Wyatt Brown 7-49, Travis Kohnhorst 10-25, Chris Maki 11-13, Chris Erickson 1-9, Kaleb Matz 1-0, Jeff Marquardt 4-minus 3, Nick Sierakowski 2-minus 4, Luke Heller 3-minus 6.
Passing: M, Ashbeck 14-27-221-1. DC, Heller 5-12-126-1, Marquardt 2-7-49-0.
Receiving: M, Jordan Litwatis 3-85, Littmann 3-54, Gebelein 3-9, Jordan Schecklman 2-29, Brandon Brown 1-20, Caleb Cline 1-13, Nate Saverda 1-11. DC, Brent Esser 3-65, Austin Waldvogel 3-57, Eric Schwan 1-53.
Interceptions: M, Ross Zillman. DC, Alex Yde.
Defensive fumble recoveries: M, Matt Scheel, Zillman. DC, Yde, Sam Graff, Gage Dunwoody.
Records: Marshfield 1-0; D.C. Everest 0-1.