Forreston capitalizes off Marquette turnovers in playoff-opening victory

FORRESTON – After a 20-7 win over Ottawa Marquette in the 1A playoffs, Forreston coach Keynon Janicke breathed a sigh of relief.

“He told me he was glad he didn’t have to play us again,” Marquette coach Tom Jobst said. “We moved the ball and played great defense.”

Other than a three-and-out on its opening possession, Marquette (7-3) was effective in moving the ball the entire game, but turnovers proved costly.

Three times, promising drives were snuffed out by fumbled snaps, something that hadn’t been a problem in the warmer weather of the regular season.

“We didn’t even cause them,” Janicke said. “They were giveaways.”

Micah Nelson sealed the win for the Cardinals (8-2) with an interception on Marquette’s final drive to make it a 4-0 edge in turnovers.

“You can’t play like that and expect to win,” Jobst said. “The ball was cold, hard and slipping. But, that’s not an excuse. They had the same situation and didn’t fumble.”

The other major drawback came on defense for the Crusaders. On two of Forreston’s touchdowns, Kaleb Sanders and Micah Nelson were stacked up at the line of scrimmage, but broke free and scored on long runs.

“Give their backs credit,” Jobst said. “In the scrum, they’d squat down and find the soft spot.”

On Forreston’s first possession, Sanders snuck up the middle on a 37-yard score to cap off a seven-play, 61-yard drive. He had 97 yards rushing but finished behind 118 yards from Owen Mulder and 101 by Nelson. It was the first time all season the Cardinals have had a 100-yard rusher in any game.

“I don’t care about (not getting 100),” Sanders said. “Maybe I will get it next week. When we get the ball, we don’t stop running.”

Marquette pulled within 8-7 on a fourth-and-goal pass from Anthony Couch to Pete McGrath. It concluded a 15-play, 65-yard drive, greatly aided by a Forreston horse-collar penalty on an incomplete pass on third-and-14. Sam Mitre kicked the extra point.

In an oddity, Mitre was penalized two consecutive times on the ensuing kickoff for not waiting until the whistle was blown to kick. The Cardinals ended up with the ball at Marquette’s 48-yard line following the return.

However, Stefen Swords and Mullen stuffed Sanders for a loss, leading to a fourth-and-3 situation. With Marquette knowing Forreston would be going for it and it would be a run, the Crusaders were in perfect position to make a stop at the line of scrimmage.

Instead, Nelson broke free from a gang tackle, kept his balance and ran 41 yards the rest of the way untouched for a score to make it 14-7.

Marquette came right back in an up-tempo attack and a wide-open Charlie Mullen nearly had a long touchdown reception, but the ball fell away from his fingertips. Six plays later, Devin Bratty recovered a fumbled snap for Forreston.

Marquette did get the ball back after stopping Mulder on a fourth down at the 16-yard line, with a Henry McGrath TFL being the key defensive play of the series for the Crusaders.

Taking over with 3:20 left in the first half, Couch connected with Keaton Davis, Mullen and Payton Gutierrez on long passes to move deep into Forreston territory.

Lineman Zach Shuman, who came up with several key defensive stops for Forreston, recovered another fumbled snap to stop the drive and prevent the Crusaders from tying the game.

“Without a doubt, the determining factor in the game was turnovers,” Marquette running back Jacob Smith said.

Coming out after halftime, it only took two plays for Forreston to up its lead to 20-7. Mulder ran up the gut for 31 yards and Sanders had a 35-yard touchdown, on a play identical to Nelson’s score off the scrum.

“Those three running backs have put their time in all four years and are leaders,” Janicke said.

The Crusader defense made a fourth-down stop to get the ball at the 18-yard line, but once again, it was a fumbled snap that killed a drive, with Ethan Bocker recovering.

“We had a bend-but-don’t-break defense tonight,” Janicke said.

With 9:23 left in the game, Marquette made its third stop on a Cardinal fourth down and was on the move again, helped by two 15-yard Forreston penalties. That’s when Nelson intercepted Couch.

“In a two-score game, that was a huge play for us” Janicke said.

Starting with a thrilling 35-34 overtime win over Marquette in 2012, this was Forreston’s fourth straight playoff win over the Crusaders.

“It was a physical game,” Bocker said.