Jeremy Ratliff
Editor
The Bluejay varsity football team has certainly squared off with its share of talented, high octane offenses this season. But none compared to the offense they faced Friday night, in their homefield duel with the La Crosse-Central Red Raiders.
The Raiders not only brought a spread-style offense orchestrated via a variety of sets not exactly common in local high school football, but that offense was under the command of one of western Wisconsin’s top field generals, in senior quarterback Johnny Davis.
Prior to Friday’s contest, Davis had already crossed the 1,000 yard barrier in total offense, and then some. In just four games this season, he not only aired out 765 yards and delivered nine scoring strikes but rolled up another 523 yards and 10 scores on the ground.
Despite the intimidating numbers, the Jays’ stood tall.
Although their first win of the season eluded them yet again-falling short 14-28- they certainly didn’t let it go without a fight.
Central would get the early jump late in the first when Davis picked his way through Jay Stadium defenders and broke loose 28 yards for the score. Things started to look a bit bleak for Merrill in the second, when Davis snapped off a 29-yard scoring scamper at the 7:53 mark and another 69-yard one-way trip to the end zone, with 1:30 left in the half.
The Jays may have been down, but were far from out and they wasted no time in showing it.
Following a huge Merrill defensive stand early in the third quarter, which left the once high-powered Red Raider scoring machine seemingly stalled and sputtering, it was the Jays’ turn to cash in on a trip to the end zone. With just three seconds left in the third, Quarterback Caleb Dejong capped off a steady, ground pounding offensive drive with a 1-yard scoring run. Dual sport kicker Caleb Novitch’s extra point narrowed the Raider lead 21-7. Davis and the Raiders responded with a 46 yard aerial strike early in the fourth, but the Jays countered just over 5 minutes later, when Dejong found the Bluejays-zone once again, this time on a 38-yard bolt down the west sideline.
“We may not have gotten the win, but I was very proud of how we responded tonight,” said head coach Rob Klug.
“We need to play every game, the we played in the second half tonight. We were down, but we came back out and made some good defensive stops, took control of the ball, moved the ball downfield and finished some drives.”
Despite the loss, the Bluejay offense enjoyed their most productive output of the season with 306 total yards. Fullback Eddie Collinsworth led the ground attack, while pounding the middle of the field for 97 hard-earned yards on 19 carries. Junior running back Nik Zastrow stretched the boundaries for the Bluejay offense, with a 75 yard performance on just 10 carries, in addition to Dejong’s 16 carries for 50 yards and two scores. Dejong rounded out his game resume with another 66 yards through the air and 4 completions.
Collinsworth enjoyed a big night on the defensive side of the ball as well (4 solo tackles, 2 assists) along with Ethyn Nowack (4 solo, TFL).
Friday night the guys will resume GNC action as they embark on their bi-annual trip north to Ashland for a showdown with the Oredockers.
“I think we will match up with them pretty evenly,” Klug said. “They’ve had some down games this year and are still in the hunt, same as we are. But they’re a solid team so we will need a good week of practice this week to get ready for them.”
As Klug alluded to, Ashland remains in the hunt for their first win of the season after falling 27-6 to Mosinee last week. Game time set for 7 p.m. at Ashland High School Friday night.