This story is sponsored by: Valley Communities Credit Union
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
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MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield football team wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty close.
Bowdi Krall blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown and the Tigers’ defense forced three turnovers in a 43-7 rout of Merrill in a WIAA Division 2 Level 1 playoff game Friday night at Beell Stadium.
Mack Scheppler recovered a fumble forced by Trevor Peterson and intercepted two passes for Marshfield.
Marshfield committed nine penalties for 66 yards, had one interception and gave up 192 yards rushing, but in the end it was another dominant performance by the Tigers.
“There were so many yellow flags, I thought the dandelions were growing on the field,” Marshfield coach Denny Goettl said. “It’s kind of kicking our tail, kind of a sloppy game. I’m not real happy with our offensive line. We’ve got to clean up a lot of that or that’s going to kill us against a team like Menomonie next week.”
Riley Gebelein had 106 yards rushing on 15 carries and scored on touchdown runs of 2 and 10 yards to lead a Marshfield offense that piled up 386 total yards and 257 on the ground. Quarterback Elliot Ashbeck complete 9 of 13 passes for 129 yards and touchdowns of 11 yards to Austin Littmann and 20 yards to Jordan Litwatis.
Marshfield (9-1) moves on to a Level 2 matchup against Menomonie (9-1) at 7 p.m. Friday at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie.
The Tigers knocked off Menomonie both during the regular season and in the second round of the playoffs last year.
“We had them on our regular season schedule for a couple or four years and we ended up meeting them in the playoffs,” Goettl said. “The road to bigger and better things runs through Menomonie and hopefully we can go over there and play well. We have to come out on top, we have no other choice.”
As has been the case in nearly every game, Marshfield wasted little time getting on top.
Gebelein returned the opening kickoff off a reverse 36 yards to the Merrill 41 and five plays later scored on a 2-yard run.
Marshfield failed to move the ball after Scheppler’s first interception but the special teams came up big when Merrill was forced to punt. Krall broke through the middle of the line unblocked, blocked Alex Cordova’s punt and had the ball bounce right up to him at the 23 and he cruised into the end zone to give Marshfield a 14-0 lead.
“Not that we’re expecting stuff from the defense all the time, but man, when they’re giving us points, holy cow, that’s great,” Goettl said.
“They didn’t see and I was surprised I even got the ball,” Krall said. “When I saw it go on the ground I picked it up and took it to the end zone. It was lucky bounce.”
The Tigers quick-play offense struck again late in the second quarter. Gebelein returned a punt 30 yards and had runs of 31 and 13 yards to set up the 11-yard touchdown pass from Ashbeck to Littmann in the back of the end zone.
Scheppler picked off a Cordova pass 19 seconds later and despite a penalty that wiped out a touchdown pass to Gebelein, Ashbeck hit Jordan Schecklman for 12 yards and Gebelein scored on the next play from the 10 to give the Tigers a commanding 29-0 lead at the break.
“The main thing is we’re playing together as a team,” Marshfield linebacker Justin Sternweis said.
Cody Tarnowski had a 30-yard run to set up Litwatis’ 20-yard touchdown reception on the first drive of the second half. Tarnowski added a 2-yard touchdown run on the second play of the fourth quarter to finish the scoring for the Tigers.
Tigers 43, Bluejays 7
Merrill 0 0 0 7 – 7
Marshfield 14 15 7 7 – 43
FIRST QUARTER
MAR – Riley Gebelein 2 run (Gus Utech kick), 10:03.
MAR – Bowdi Krall 23 blocked punt return (Utech kick), 4:47.
SECOND QUARTER
MAR – Austin Littmann 11 pass from Elliot Ashbeck (Bo Howard run), 1:38.
MAR – Gebelein 10 run (Utech kick), 0:38.
THIRD QUARTER
MAR – Jordan Litwatis 20 pass from Ashbeck (Utech kick), 9:21.
FOURTH QUARTER
MAR – Cody Tarnowski 2 run (Utech kick), 10:49.
MER – Austin Voight 4 run (Alex Cordova kick), 4:03.
TEAM STATISTICS
First downs: Merrill 13; Marshfield 14.
Rushing (att-yards): Merrill 31-192; Marshfield 31-257.
Passing (comp-att-yards-int): Merrill 4-15-43-2; Marshfield 9-13-129-1.
Penalties (total-yards): Merrill 3-27; Marshfield 9-66.
Fumbles (total-lost): Merrill 1-1; Marshfield 0-0.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: Merrill, Austin Voight 21-148, Alex Cordova 2-21, Coty Rajek 5-14, Nick Peterson 3-9. Marshfield, Riley Gebelein 15-106, Cody Tarnowski 6-88, Ryan Trierweiler 2-21, Jack Marquardt 1-12, Bo Howard 1-2, Shawn Weber 3-10, Luke Wirtz 1-8, Elliot Ashbeck 1-0.
Passing: Merrill, Cordova 4-15-43-2. Marshfield, Ashbeck 9-13-129-1.
Receiving: Merrill, Ray Paul 4-43. Marshfield, Austin Littmann 5-66, Jordan Schecklman 2-29, Jordan Litwatis 1-20, Brandon Brown 1-14.
Fumble recoveries (defense): Marshfield, Mack Scheppler.
Interceptions (defense): Marshfield, Scheppler 2.
Records: Merrill 4-6; Marshfield 9-1.