It wasn’t the start the Marion/Tigerton football team was looking for, but a 34-8 loss to Iola-Scandinavia won’t make or break the Thundercatz’ season.
That’s the message coach Mark Fredy had for his team Aug. 20 after Marion/Tigerton fell to the Thunderbirds in Marion. The Thunderbirds were a last-minute replacement to the Thundercatz’ schedule after Gillett decided earlier this month to suspend its 8-player varsity season for 2026.
Fredy, the Marion School District’s athletic director, is in his first year of coaching a co-op team that includes players from Marion and Tigerton high schools.
The Thundercatz are coming off of an 8-2 season that saw the team advance to the second round of the WIAA 8-player playoffs. Meanwhile, Iola-Scandinavia is playing an independent schedule after moving from the 11-player to the 8-player format for the 2026 season.
The Thunderbirds scored at least one touchdown in each quarter.
Marion/Tigerton took the opening kickoff and had a first-and-goal at the Iola-Scandinavia 1-yard line but ended up turning the ball over after Aiden Bowen’s interception ended the drive.
“There are a lot of things that are not going to let me sleep tonight, and that’s one of them,” Fredy said. “We get it on the 1-yard line, and we’ve got to score. We had a negative play and then a penalty.”
Bowen capped the Thunderbirds’ first drive with a 43-yard touchdown run, and the visitors took a 6-0 lead into the second quarter.
Marion/Tigerton’s second drive also ended with an interception, as University of Wisconsin recruit Korz Loken picked off Braylon Mielke’s pass.
The Thunderbirds added to their lead with 2:05 to go in the first half on Bowen’s 8-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-goal to give Iola-Scandinavia a 12-0 halftime lead.
The Thunderbirds began the second half with another touchdown drive, as Mason Kriesel and Loken hooked up for a 60-yard touchdown pass.
Mielke, who rushed for more than 2,000 yards last year as a junior, led the Thundercatz with 82 of his 92 rushing yards in the first half, but he went down with a foot injury with 8:14 remaining in the third quarter and didn’t return.
However, Marion/Tigerton scored on the drive, as Maxwell Wilkening found the end zone from 6 yards out with 6:09 to go in the third quarter and his 2-point conversion run cut Iola-Scandinavia’s lead to 18-8. He ended up leading the Thundercatz with 145 rushing yards on 17 carries.
“It tells me that we’re resilient,” Fredy said of the way his team responded after Mielke left the game. “We have a never-give-up attitude.”
It didn’t take long for the Thunderbirds to add to their lead, as Kriesel scored from 11 yards out on the team’s next drive and completed a 2-point conversion pass to Loken for a 26-8 lead with 2:25 remaining in the third quarter.
Bowen’s third touchdown of the game came on an 89-yard run on Iola-Scandinavia’s next drive early in the fourth quarter one play after a Marion/Tigerton fumble and Brody Peterman’s 2-point conversion run wrapped up the scoring.
Injuries are already taking a toll on the Thundercatz with only one game played, according to Fredy.
“It’s been a rough start to the season,” he said. “Caleb Stern went down with a broken collarbone on the first play of the scrimmage, and he’s probably our best defensive player and second-best offensive player. Our tight end went down with a rolled ankle, so he didn’t play tonight. We have a senior outside linebacker who’s sick and wasn’t here tonight. The guys who filled in did everything we asked, and we just ran out of people.
“I wanted to see us be able to compete and execute some things. Offensively, I knew that I wanted to be more than a one-trick pony, and I think we were able to prove that we have some other guys that can carry the load when needed. Defensively, I wanted to see us fly around and make some plays. (Iola-Scandinavia) has a lot of athletes all over the place. They’ve got speed and they got us a couple of times when we had to move some people around.”
Fredy wasn’t sure how serious Mielke’s injury was shortly after the game ended.
“I have to touch base with the trainer on a couple different guys,” he said.
Fredy is in his second stint as the team’s varsity coach, has been a part of the program for years and replaces Micah Schwantes, who stepped down after the 2025 season after coaching the Thundercatz to a Central Wisconsin Conference 8-player championship.
The Thundercatz will open CWC play Aug. 28 against Almond-Bancroft in Almond.
“I know that we did a lot of good things last year, but we lost a lot,” Fredy said. “We’re trying to find our way, but I like the attitude of this team. We could have cashed it in, and they could have put up 60 (points) on us, but we fought and continued to do a lot of good things. We’ll build off of it and hopefully, we can get healthy.”
Braylon Mielke picks up a first down for Marion/Tigerton on Aug. 20 in the first quarter of the Thundercatz’ season opener against Iola-Scandinavia. Mielke left the game with a foot injury in the third quarter and finished with 92 rushing yards on 13 carries. (Greg Seubert)
Iola-Scandinavia’s Broghan Gullixon tackles Marion/Tigerton’s Maxwell Wilkening. (Greg Seubert)
Luke Aiello lines up as a linebacker for Marion/Tigerton. (Greg Seubert)
