RIB LAKE 38, ATHENS 36 - Redmen not as sharp, survive upset bid from winless Athens

RIB LAKE 38, ATHENS 36

Rib Lake’s recent offensive surge came to a halt in the second half Thursday and the defense struggled at times as well, but the Redmen made enough plays on each side, along with a big special teams play early to get a 38-36 win over visiting Athens.

While Rib Lake was playing for its playoff life, Athens was just looking for its first win of the eight-player football season, which made the two-point margin of victory a bit surprising.

Frustrating was the more accurate word in Rib Lake’s camp, but the Redmen were happy to put the notch in the win column against a team they knew was better than their now 0-7 record shows.

“You could feel the frustration of not being mentally sound and just being uncharacteristic,” Rib Lake head coach Jonah Campbell said. “It was a good win. They were a tough team. They played us tough. We’re proud with the way we were able to finish. That’s big. That’s what we needed to do. Even with the frustration, we were able to come together and finish the game. Overall it was just a feeling of early-season type football. It felt like there were a lot of mistakes that should be ironed out by now.

“We expected a good game and they gave us a good, tough game.”

Big plays made the difference on the scoreboard as four of Rib Lake’s five touchdown drives were completed fairly quickly. The last of those was a 73-yard touchdown run by Tucker Phillips on the first offensive snap of the second half, giving Rib Lake a 38-24 lead.

But, for the first time since week one against Gilman, the offense stalled from there, giving Athens chances to draw even. A Slade Scheithauer interception gave Rib Lake one huge stop in the third quarter, but the Blue Jays still got two more touchdowns after that. Phillips and Ethan Cook combined for the tackle to stop the tying two-point conversion with 4:56. Then, just when the Redmen needed it, they picked up two first downs to run out the clock and breathe a sigh of relief while improving to 5-1 in the Northwoods East Conference and 5-2 overall.

“We came back and finished when we needed to,” Campbell said. “Our defense was on the field a lot in the second half. Athens controlled the ball. They controlled the clock in the second half. They got back within two. But when we needed to have it, we needed to get first downs, we needed to run the clock out, we did. We were able to string together our longest drive to get that clock all the way down to zero. We were able to finish. We were able to fight through it.”

The Redmen got off to a fast start. Blake Henderson’s squib kick to start the game didn’t roll very far, but it rolled free long enough for Talon Scheithauer to pounce on it. Rib Lake took full advantage of the stolen possession as Phillips broke off a 50-yard scoring run on the game’s second offensive snap. Slade Scheithauer ran in the two-point conversion for a quick 8-0 lead.

Scheithauer got his first career start at quarterback as Talon Scheithauer shifted to running back to fill in for the injured Logan Schmittfranz. Lawson Carlson and Keaton Schmidtfranz shared time at guard for the injured Brevin Brahmer.

“That was huge,” Campbell said of the opening kick. “That wasn’t necessarily something planned. Obviously we were trying to do a squib kick that is tough to recover and I think that’s exactly what happened. Their guy couldn’t handle the ball. Sometimes on these squib kicks they go really short, it looks like an onside. If that’s the case, that’s the case. If it’s tough to handle, that’s what we want. We’d like them a little bit deeper, but we gave ourselves a shot and got on the ball.”

Athens quickly showed it wasn’t going down easy. The Blue Jays responded with a 65-yard scoring drive that included three pass completions from junior quarterback Kamden Zarnke. The last of those was a 13-yard scoring toss to Daxton Diethelm. Zarnke’s two-point run tied it.

Rib Lake punted and Athens was right back at it, going 62 yards on a 12-play drive that ended with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Schreiner that made it 16-8 with 1:33 left in the first quarter.

The second quarter was an offensive shootout.

Talon Scheithauer’s 17-yard kickoff return gave Rib Lake good field position at the Athens 47 and the Redmen scored in nine plays, getting a 1-yard sneak from Slade Scheithauer. Talon Scheithauer’s two-point run tied it. Zarnke’s 32-yard pass to Schreiner down the right sideline allowed Athens to overcome a holding penalty and set up Schreiner’s 3-yard touchdown run that gave the Jays a 24-16 lead.

Rib Lake countered with a quick 68yard drive that ended with Talon Scheithauer making a big-time play, maintaining his balance with his hand while getting hit in the backfield. He spun to his left and went 52 yards for the gametying score. The Redmen finally forced the first Athens punt of the game and needed just over a minute to march 72 yards to score the go-ahead touchdown, a 30-yard run by Phillips with 12 seconds left. It was the second week in a row Phillips scored on a big run to end the first half. Right after that, Phillips sacked Zarnke and forced a fumble that was recovered by Rib Lake’s Brady Heiser with two seconds left. The hit knocked Zarnke out of the game.

“Defensively having them stick around and stay in the game was a frustrating part,” Campbell said. “Our defense couldn’t complement the offense. Even though we scored the three touchdowns in the second quarter on offense, we still kinda had that mentality where we were not extremely happy with how we were playing. We were letting them move the ball and control the clock. It was just uncharacteristic of how the last few weeks had gone.”

Phillips bounced his opening run of the second half to the right and sprinted down the right sideline for the 73-yard score that made it 38-24.

With Garrett Frahm now taking the snaps for Athens, the Blue Jays pulled off a hook-and-ladder pass play for 50 yards that got them inside the 10. Slade Scheithauer’s third-down interception at the goal line ended the drive, but Scheithauer stepped back into the field of play and was tackled at the one. The Redmen got one first down before two penalties forced a punt. The Blue Jays went 36 yards in four plays, scoring on Schreiner’s 5-yard run to pull within 3830 with 2:31 left in the third quarter.

The teams traded three punts before Athens got a 38-yard touchdown run from Evan Passehl and a chance to tie the game. That’s when Phillips and Cook stuffed Schreiner on a run to the right to keep Rib Lake in the lead.

On Rib Lake’s ensuing drive, Talon Scheithauer took the snap on fourth and three from his own 44 and completed a 13yard pass to Lucas Cook for a big first down with three minutes left. Phillips’ 7yard run on third and three iced it with 1:36 left.

Phillips finished with 206 yards on 16 carries, averaging 13 yards per carry. Talon Scheithauer ran for 112 yards on 15 attempts. The Redmen had 365 rushing yards and 376 total yards. Athens had 176 rushing yards and 147 passing yards for 323 total yards.

Rib Lake finishes the regular season Friday with a 7:30 p.m. game at Hurley (51, 6-1). The Northstars fell short at Phillips this past week 48-32 in a conferencechampionship matchup. Friday’s winner will clinch at least second place in the Northwoods East and will await the release of the WIAA post-season field and brackets Friday night and Saturday morning. Hurley should be comfortably in the playoffs if it wins. If Rib Lake wins, it could come down to tiebreakers to determine how many, if any, two-loss teams get into the 16-team playoff bracket.