The Marinette High School football team paid tribute to its 1989 state championship football team with a stellar second half at Higley Stadium on Friday night.
Marinette (2-4, 2-4 Bay) beat visiting Shawano 42-21 to keep its playoff hopes alive. The Hawks fell to 3-3 overall, 2-3 in the Bay Conference.
After Shawano took a 7-6 halftime lead on the strength of a picture-perfect two-minute drill, Marinette’s 1989 team was honored in a halftime ceremony. The Marines looked like a different team in the second half.
“We played a strong first half,” Shawano coach Al Tomow said. “We came out in the second half and allowed Marinette to move up and down the field. We had to play catch-up the entire second half.”
“We definitely changed the bar a little bit,” Marinette senior lineman Kolby Garza said. “Our tempo, our mindset.”
Senior Colton Dessart said the seniors talked about how they had just 10 quarters remaining, plus the M&M (Marinette and Menominee) game.
“We all made a promise to each other in the lockerroom that we were going to clean up on mistakes,” Dessart said.
The second half started with a seven-play, 61-yard scoring drive, capped by Dessart’s 16-yard touchdown run. Luke Johnson threw a two-point conversion pass to Jonte Webb for a 14-7 lead.
Shawano’s fake punt backfired with an incompletion. That gave the Marines a short field, and they capitalized with Dessart’s 6-yard TD run with 2:38 in the third quarter. Webb’s 14-yard catch on fourth-and-6 kept the drive alive, and Matt Richmond kicked the first of four extra points.
On Marinette’s next play from scrimmage, tailback Caylubb Maske broke off a 57-yard TD run with 55.4 seconds in the third quarter.
Shawano responded with Zack Sousek’s 10-yard TD run, which was set up by Jack Hanauer’s 37-yard pass to Adam Bartz.
But Webb recovered the ensuing onside kick, and Maske capped Marinette’s drive with a 5-yard scoring run with 8:14 remaining.
Sousek, who burned the Marines all night with big kick returns, caught a 30-yard TD pass from Hanauer with 6:39 remaining.
Jimmy Jackimowicz capped the scoring with a shifty 14-yard cutback TD run.
“We challenged our kids,” Marinette coach Andy Walters said of the halftime speech. “We weren’t executing very well offensively. Obviously they responded well, and I’m very proud of them for that.”
Marinette took a 6-0 lead with 2:06 in the first quarter on Maske’s 12-yard TD run. Jackimowicz’s nice over-the-shoulder 22-yard reception on fourth down kept the drive alive.
Hanauer completed 4 of 6 passes during Shawano’s two-minute drill to end the half. Chase Henning capped the 80-yard drive with a 3-yard run with 24.5 seconds in the half.
“I think we have to look at what we did in the first half,” Tomow said. “We didn’t force any turnovers, but we played really strong. We bent, but we didn’t break. We gave up one touchdown. Our offense came down strong at the end of the half and scored. That’s the kind of football we have to play.”
The Hawks netted zero rushing yards on 25 attempts.
“That’s what high school football is all about,” Walters said. “You’ve got to be able to stop the run and make them throw. They did some things offensively that had us break our rules.”
Hanauer, a sophomore making his first start at quarterback for Shawano, completed 23 of 44 passes for 287 yards. Cole Huntington, who started the previous five games, moved to linebacker Friday.
“Once Jack settled in he made some great throws tonight,” Tomow said. “He really showed that he was ready to be a varsity quarterback. I think that’s something he can definitely build on.”
More than half of Marinette’s state title team was on hand, and former coaches Joel Hanner and Tim Stauss were honorary captains.
Categories
