Flurry of late scores push Montabella past Onekama

by Matt Wenzel, Manistee News Advocate
ONEKAMA — As the fourth quarter began, Onekama was just one play away from tying, or potentially going ahead against Montabella.

Then the wheels fell off.

The Mustangs (1-1) scored 34 points in eight minutes to blow open a close game for a 41-0 win against the Portagers (0-2) on Thursday night.

“The kids hung tough, I thought, until the second score,” said Onekama coach Jim Hunter. “Unfortunately, I think we had some guys out there on our team that felt like when it got to be 13-0 that we were beat, that there was no way we were going to come back.”

Montabella scored on four consecutive offensive possessions in the second half — to go with a touchdown on defense — while the Portagers turned the ball over on all six of their possessions in the second half and were blanked for a second straight week.

“You can’t keep shooting yourself in the foot offensively and put your defense back out there,” Hunter said. “It just gets harder and harder to believe in what you’re doing when it’s not working.”

The Portagers picked off Montabella quarterback Brady Burggren on the Mustangs’ first possession, but their nine-play drive stalled out. After a superb punt by Quinn Matthews pinned the Mustangs on their 1-yard line, Onekama recovered a fumble at the 5 and appeared poised to take the early lead.

But, on the first play of the second quarter, the Portagers coughed it up to Montabella on a fumble of their own. Burggren scampered 87 yards on the next play to set up a 3-yard touchdown by Zack Taubitz for the 7-0 lead with 11:27 left in the first half.

That stood up as the halftime score and the Portagers forced a punt to open the second half. Keyed by a 31-yard run by Matthews, Onekama was threatening to knot the score or go ahead.

However, the Portagers were whistled for a false start on a fourth-and-1, making it fourth-and-6, and Matthews came up a foot or so short, turning the ball over.

Matthews led the Portagers with 18 carries for 91 yards while Jordan Coe had 18 carries for 48 yards.

“Those guys are good backs,” Hunter said. “We just need to do a better job getting them past the linebackers so they can show what they can do. That will come when those guys up front get after it a little harder and believe in themselves more.”

On the very next play, Burggren threw a quick slant to Landan Burns for a 75-yard touchdown and 13-0 lead.

After a turnover on downs by Onekama, the Mustangs scored five plays later for the 21-0 lead with 7:38 to play.

“I think some of the kids stopped believing,” Matthews said. “The only way we’re going to get better is to practice and we have to get it through their heads that we can come back from a deficit that big.”

Onekama quarterback Tyler Johnson was picked by Peter Taylor, who returned it 50 yards for a touchdown. Johnson finished 2-for-7 passing for 10 yards and two interceptions.

Montabella went on to add two touchdowns in a 29-second span for the 41-0 lead to induce a running clock, which seemed highly unlikely when the fourth quarter started.

“I think our conditioning was real good in the fourth quarter and we were able to capitalize on a few mistakes,” said Montabella coach David Clay. “Really, the game could have gone either way but we spent a lot of time on conditioning and I think that really went well in the fourth quarter.”

The Onekama JV team beat Montabella 18-14 on Thursday.