The Turnaround Season: Game One vs Petoskey.
Friday August 27, 2010
Week one of the high school football season brought excitement to Marquette Senior High School and fans packed the stands to see how this team would shape up compared to the prior few seasons. “New” was the theme as there was a new coaching staff, new uniforms, new blood (37 players took the field compared to 17 from the 2009 finale), and a new, curious sense of enthusiasm.
The opponent for the opener was Petoskey, coming off of an 8–2 season as one of the top teams in the Big North Conference. The Northmen were expected to have another strong, playoff-bound season — making this contest an interesting barometer of how far the new Marquette regime had come.
On a beautiful late summer night that would’ve stirred nostalgia in any alumnus, fans poured into William Hart Stadium to watch a season-opening doubleheader. After the JV team defeated the visitors 28–0, attention shifted to the varsity contest. In his pregame interview, Petoskey’s coach Kerry Van Orman stated that he was concerned about the big crowd and suggested his team needed to get out to an early lead in order to calm the atmosphere. Van Orman hoped to plant the same “Here We Go Again” seeds of doubt in the minds of Marquette’s players on their way to handing MSHS its 20th loss in a row.
The game couldn’t have started better for PHS as Marquette struggled to get in an offensive rhythm. A pair of early fumbles handed the Northmen great field position that they were quick to capitalize on. By the halfway point of the first quarter, they had scored on a rush from inside the 10-yard line as well as a 41-yard TD pass that silenced the crowd to go up 14–0. Marquette’s downstate foes were clicking, with a stout triple option offensive attack relying on an athletic quarterback who had more than proved that he could throw the deep ball. It wasn’t until Marquette’s third offensive possession of the half that Garrett Pentecost took a halfback toss and sped 79 yards untouched into the end zone to get the hometown team on the board.
Petoskey scored once more before halftime to make the score 21–7 at the break. The second half was a battle in the trenches as the lines for both teams refused to let the other gain any momentum. Marquette’s Josh Bullock and Petoskey’s Louie Lamberti traded punts as the teams battled for field position throughout the entire third quarter. In the fourth, Pentecost broke through and struck gold again with a 54-yard TD sprint to cut the deficit to 21–14. Down just one possession as time began winding down, Marquette forced Petoskey to punt to secure one last opportunity for the offense to shock the peninsulas and bring the game back to even. While driving down the field in hopes of tying the game, Marquette turned the ball over one last time to seal the victory for the visitors.
The season opener showed that Marquette had an offensive weapon in Pentecost, who had racked up 147 yards on 10 carries along with two touchdowns. Another major emerging factor was a defensive line that could be relied upon to make stops when needed and refused to fold under pressure. Zak Green, Jared Erickson, Tanner Delpier, and Bullock anchored the line that kept the team in the game.
There’s no doubt that being in a competitive game gave the hometown crowd something to go home excited about; Marquette had proved that they would not go down without a fight. Unfortunately, the losing streak was at 20 and faithful MSHS supporters were wondering when the lengthy skid would come to an end. The next step of the progression had to be winning, and the following week’s opponent, Sault Ste Marie, looked more and more like a “Now or Never” moment for Marquette football.
Next Week: Marquette looks to get its first win of the season against the Sault.
