BIG PUTCH! Potier Helps Gladstone Roll Maroons
Click the thumbnails to see photos taken by Brad Landis, video highlights, and listen to post-game comments from Braves Coach Craig Ness, and players of the game Cole Potier and Jacob Perryman. Also listen to player spotlight interviews with Braden Sundquist and Mitchell Cartwright.
MENOMINEE---Cole Potier ran for 199 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Gladstone Braves to a 28-6 win over Menominee Friday night at Blesch Stadium.
The win gave Gladstone a 3-0 record, and 2-0 in the Great Northern Conference.
The Braves were forced to punt on their first possession on offense, but the Maroons also went three-and-out. A poor punt set the Braves up at the Menoninee 23 yard-line and it took two runs by Potier to get on the scoreboard, with the touchdown coming from 14 yards out. Nate Young's pass to Tyler Darmogray made it 8-0.
The Maroons mixed it up on offense, after a missed Gladstone on-side kick set them up at the Braves 47 yard-line. A bad snap in the red zone gave the Maroons a 4th and 20 at the 30 yard-line, but sophomore quarterback Trevor Theuerkauf was able to get to the outside and sprinted for a 29-yard run to the one-yard line. He scored on the next play to make it 8-6, but the two-point pass was intercepted in the end zone.
When Gladstone got the ball back, the Braves faced 4th-and-1 at their own 36 yard-line. The Braves did not punt, instead, giving it to Potier. He raced to the outside after being initially stopped up the middle. Potier outran everybody to the one yard-line before being tackled from behind. Potier scored on the next play, and Young ran in the two-point conversion, so the Braves had a 16-6 lead.
The Maroons put together a 12-play drive from their own 31-yard-line, with more passing than Menominee football has been known for. They got as far as the Braves 30-yard-line after converting two third-and-longs. But on 4th and 10, a pass to Kaden Bell was well short of the first down.
Gladstone replied with a 70-yard, 12-play drive, with Johnny Soderman getting a 12-yard run and Elliot Vitito receiving an 18-yard pass to the Maroons 20. Potier completed the drive wit his third touchdown of the half, from one yard out, and it was 22-6.
The Maroons turned the ball over when Jacob Perryman put pressure on Theurkauf and was hit as he threw. The pass landed in the hands of a diving Austin Solis for an interception. The Braves struck quick with a 33-yard touchdown pass from Young to a wide open Vitito, but it was called back on a holding penalty.
The Braves ended up running out the clock after Young was sacked, but they still had a 22-6 lead heading into the locker room.
The Maroons took the second half kickoff and drove down the field on a 14-play drive to the Braves 18 yard line. But on 4th-and-13, Theuerkauf's pass to a wide-open Kaden Bell as he ran into the end zone. He dropped the ball, though, and the Braves dodged the bullet as Menominee got no points after using more than six minutes of clock.
The Braves got two first downs on a21-yard run by Young and a 11 yard-run by Potier, but the drive stalled and the Maroons had another opportunity.
They took over in Gladstone territory when the punt return by Kaden Calcari was combined with a 15-yard penalty. But the drive ended when Tyler Darmogray stepped in front of a 4th down pass and intercepted it, his fourth pick in the first three games of the season.
The Braves looked to put the game away as Potier broke off four runs for 54 yards on the drive. But the handoff to Austin Solis on the counter play worked at first, as he broke free to the two yard-line. The Marooms defenders stripped the ball away, though, and it was returned to the nine yard-line.
Menominee got one first down, but the Braves held on fourth down.
Gladstone put the game away with an eight-yard touchdown run by Austin Solis with 46 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
