Raiders stung by Hornets

Colby is still in first place

By Ross Pattermann

There may be no place like home, but even playing at home did the Marathon Red Raiders no favors on Friday.

The Red Raiders hosted the undefeated Colby Hornets for their homecoming game, and the second ranked team in D-6 looked every bit the part of a potential state champ. Marathon struggled to get stops on defense and failed to move the ball on offense against a talented Colby squad that featured playmakers on both sides of the ball.

The Hornets wasted little time in handing the Red Raiders a loss, scoring 35 points in the first quarter alone, rushing for four scores, and getting picked off for a Pick Six for another.

To complicate matters, the Red Raiders were without the services of Matt Annis, who is out for the season with injury. The Red Raiders tried to establish their ground game, but five sacks led to negative 16 rushing yards.

Marathon quarterback senior Ben Robbins was able to generate some excitement for the home crowd when he dropped a 30-yard dime to wide receiver Daniel LaQua in the second half.

On defense, John Stoffel provided the highlight for Marathon, picking off Colby’s Tucker Meyer in the second quarter. But stops were few and far between as Meyer found Brekyn Lieders for a 42-yard catch and run that made it 42-0 in the third quarter.

It was a tough night for the Red Raiders, who have had to play ranked teams in back to back weeks, but they’ll get a chance for a statement win this year when they take on Grantsburg this Friday at home.

“We still got a lot to play for,” Robbins said. “Our plan is to go out and play as hard as we can, and put in some good plays. We got one more conference game with Auburndale coming up in a few weeks. So we win that and we’re in the playoffs.