Princeville’s offensive diversity too much for Marquette

Turnovers lead to Crusaders loss against Princes

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PRINCEVILLE – It wasn’t fit for man or beast Wednesday night, so judging by the performances by the Princeville Princes against visiting Marquette the blood running through their veins must come at least in part from Eskimo descendants.

On a night where it was tough to hang on to the ball, the Princes managed to diversify their offense enough to post 456 yards of offense in a 36-14 victory over the Crusaders at Tom Brunei Field.

“But I give the kids a lot of credit. They kept playing hard on a night it was tough to be out there.”

—  Marquette football coach Tom Jobst

After Marquette successfully stifled Princeville’s running game in the first quarter, quarterback Sam Streitmatter took to the air and completed 12-of-22 passing for 248 yards and a touchdown on the night. His efforts, with eight completions going to Denver Hoerr for 177 yards, were enough to loosen up that MA run defense. Speedy running back Hunter Boland finished with 20 carries for 165 yards and three scores in the win.

For the Crusaders, Shane Reynolds rushed 12 times for 88 yards, and sophomore quarterback Alex Graham rushed for a TD and connected six times in 15 attempts for 121 yards and one touchdown to Jake Thomas. However, he was picked off twice by Princeville’s Grant Hunt, and Marquette lost two fumbles, which cost them solid scoring chances while the game still was close.

“It was a rough night for everybody,” Marquette coach Tom Jobst said. “We made mistakes, they made mistakes, they made some big plays. That’s just a very good team. They really are.

“You never like to see the kind of mistakes we made tonight, but I’m not unhappy with the kids. They hung in there against a veteran team. … Their quarterback is good. That first touchdown he threw [in the first quarter], that long pass was big. That hurt.

“But we had a lot of adversity between turnovers and injuries and everything else. Some guys moved to different positions. Those aren’t excuses, but there’s just a lot of stuff piling up on us tonight. But I give the kids a lot of credit.

“They kept playing hard on a night it was tough to be out there.”

Marquette (1-2) claimed the early advantage when a 34-yard run by Reynolds set up a 1-yard plunge by Graham and his pass to Vic Mullen for the 2-point conversion with only 46.6 seconds left in the first quarter.

However, on the first play of the ensuing possession, Streitmatter scrambled and found Hoerr behind the defense for an 84-yard score and the PATs to tie the game at 8-all.

After a flurry of turnovers, Boland cashed in an MA fumble with a 30-yard run for a score. The Princes’ RJ Ahten then pulled off an onside kick, and six plays later Boland found the end zone again, this time from 10 yards out, and with Ahten’s kick it was 22-8.

The Crusaders answered when Graham hit Mullen for 29 yards and then Thomas for 27 and the score, but that was it for the locals.

In the third quarter, Princes’ lineman Job Feucht blocked a Logan Nelson punt. It was recovered in the end zone by Hunt for a back-breaking score. Boland added his third TD from 46 yards out in the fourth quarter.

The teams turned the ball over eight times, with Caden Eller and Beau Ewers picking off passes and Reynolds and Tom Durdan recovering fumbles for the Crusaders.

“Marquette definitely shut us down early running the ball, and that’s what I like to do,” Prince coach Jon Carruthers said. “Fortunately, the last two years we’ve been a little more diverse, and we have a pretty good quarterback to go to when we need to. He throws the ball well, and we have a couple of nice receivers out there. That makes me a little more comfortable going to the pass.

”Once that opened things up and the defense wasn’t able to load the box on us, we were able to move the ball on the ground. That’s helped us out the last few games.

“Defensively, we have some physical guys in the line, and they did a great job keeping our linebackers free to flow to the ball. The kids did a great job reading their keys tonight against a tough offense to defend.

“Marquette is well-coached, and it was a pleasure getting to face [Jobst]. He’s a great coach.”