This story is sponsored by: Valley Communities Credit Union
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
STEVENS POINT – Marshfield came into Friday’s Valley Football Association South Division finale with two things in mind: prepare for the upcoming WIAA playoffs and beat Stevens Point Area Senior High for the first time in seven seasons.
The Tigers wasted no time, scoring on their second offensive play following a fumble recovery and rolled to a 37-7 win over SPASH to finish the regular season with an 8-1 record and a 6-1 mark in the VFA South. In the process, Marshfield knocked Point out of a playoff berth as the Panthers finish their season 4-5 and 3-4 in the conference.
The WIAA will announce its playoff pairings on Monday afternoon. First-round games will be next Friday or Saturday. Marshfield expects to play in Division 2, which it did last year when it made it all the way to the state semifinals.
Riley Gebelein rushed for 169 yards on just 15 carries and scored three touchdowns for Marshfield. In all, the Tigers ran for 252 yards and Elliot Ashbeck added another 148 yards through the air and threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Brown.
Marshfield outgained SPASH 400-134 and sacked the Panthers’ quarterbacks nine times resulting in 60 yards in losses, four forced fumbles and two recoveries. Trevor Peterson had 3½ sacks, Justin Sternweis added 2½ sacks and a fumble recovery and Eric Seehafer also had a pair of ½ sacks as the Tigers’ defensive front seven dominated.
“It’s fun watching that,” Marshfield coach Denny Goettl said. “If they get a big play, it’s like ‘OK, they got a first down, but we’re going to have some stops.’ It gives our offense some added cushion. We try to score every drive, but we know that the defense is going to get us the ball back. It’s a good thing we have the defensive front seven that we have.”
Alex Arendt recovered a fumble on Stevens Point’s first offensive play at the 10-yard line and Cody Tarnowski scored two plays later from the 1 to begin the rout for the Tigers.
It took only five plays for Marshfield to score on its next possession as Gebelein scampered 52 yards for the first of his three scores with 5:22 left in the first quarter.
Gebelein added a 20-yard touchdown run and Gus Utech kicked a 37-yard field goal in the final minute of the first half to put the Tigers in control and up 24-0 at halftime.
“We’ve been working on our D-line a lot lately and working on our hand placement and it’s been going good,” said Arendt, a senior defensive tackle. “Those linebackers (Sternweis and Ross Zillman) are really good. Overall, I think we’re doing better each week.”
Marshfield’s defense sacked SPASH quarterback Ryan Sullivan five times in the second half and forced a pair of fumbles that were recovered by Cody Podevels and Sternweis.
A fake punt run of 19 yards by Tanner Happe set up Marshfield’s fourth touchdown, a 1-yard run by Gebelein in the third quarter. After SPASH scored on a 30-yard run by Nate Kropidlowski following a blocked punt, Sternweis’ fumble recovery in the fourth quarter set up a 16-yard touchdown pass from Ashbeck to Brown to finish the scoring.
“It’s been a few years since we beat them and we’ve had it in the back of our minds,” Goettl said. “It’s not like we’re trying to fix vendettas or anything like that, but when you don’t beat someone for a long time you have to get up for them and we did. We’ve got some little modifications to work on, which is nice at this point that it’s little modifications, but we know that when we have some issues, there are some things we need to work on.”
Ashbeck said he likes the way the Tigers have come together during the course of the season and heading into the postseason.
“We had two bad quarters this season in nine games,” Ashbeck said referring to the Tigers’ inability to hold a lead in a 22-19 loss to Wisconsin Rapids two weeks ago. “We just need to forget about that and I think we have. We are building one game at a time. It’s going to be the same thing starting next week, one game at a time and keep building off that.”
Tigers 37, Panthers 7
Marshfield 14 10 7 6 – 37
Stevens Point 0 0 7 0 – 7
FIRST QUARTER
M – Cody Tarnowski 1 run (Gus Utech kick), 11:15.
M – Riley Gebelein 52 run (Utech kick), 5:22.
SECOND QUARTER
M – Gebelein 20 run (Utech kick), 4:14.
M – Utech 37 field goal, 0:55.
THIRD QUARTER
M – Gebelein 1 run (Utech kick), 6:11.
SP – Nate Kropidlowski 30 run (Dillon Schmenk kick), 2:12.
FOURTH QUARTER
M – Brandon Brown 16 pass from Elliot Ashbeck (kick missed), 5:37.
TEAM STATISTICS
First downs: Marshfield 15; Stevens Point 8.
Rushing (att-yards): Marshfield 33-252; Stevens Point 38-63.
Passing (comp-att-yards-int): Marshfield 15-26-148-0; Stevens Point 7-12-71-0.
Penalties (total-yards): Marshfield 5-25; Stevens Point 4-25.
Fumbles (total-lost): Marshfield 2-0; Stevens Point 5-3.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: M, Riley Gebelein 15-169, Ryan Trierweiler 9-50, Tanner Happe 1-19, Bo Howard 2-6, Luke Wirtz 1-4, Cody Tarnowski 3-4, Dakota Schlough 1-2, Elliot Ashbeck 1-minus 3. SP, Zach Pozorski 10-49, Seth Dominick 10-36, Nate Kropidlowski 4-32, Caleb Finn 2-8, Ethan Fenske 1-minus 8, Ryan Sullivan 11-minus 54.
Passing: M, Ashbeck 15-26-148-0. SP, Fenske 4-7-35-0, Sullivan 3-5-36-0.
Receiving: M, Austin Littmann 5-29, Gebelein 3-34, Brandon Brown 3-32, Jordan Schecklman 1-22, Tarnowski 1-15, Caleb Cline 1-9, Jordan Litwatis 1-7. SP, Finn 4-42, Jordan Richards 1-20, Mike Blake 1-8, Pozorski 1-1.
Fumble recoveries (Defense): M, Justin Sternweis, Cody Podevels, Alex Arendt.
Records: Marshfield 8-1, 6-1 Valley Football Association South; Stevens Point 4-5, 3-4 VFA South.