MIFFLINBURG – When your running game isn’t working, you have to put it in the air.
For some teams, that can be problematic. Mifflinburg is most certainly not one of those teams.
Struggling to put together a consistent rushing attack on Friday against Central Columbia, Mifflinburg elected to throw it early and often, and its new sophomore quarterback answered the bell. Playing on an injured leg that happened on defense in the first half, Chad
Martin still managed to complete 29-of-35 passes for 406 yards and five touchdowns and Mifflinburg was able to chew off just enough clock with its running game late and hold off a feisty and scrappy Central Columbia team to come away with a 35-28 win to improve
to 2-0.
“We’ve struggled to establish a running game so far, so we have to do what we can do and use what we got, and that’s exactly what we were doing,” said Mifflinburg coach Jason Dressler.
The passing game was working for Mifflinburg not only because Martin was accurate for the vast majority of his throws, but because Central was simply unable to match up with the Wildcats’ tall and lanky receivers anywhere on the field. Even on a few poorly thrown passes, Martin was able to complete them thanks to his receivers being a half-foot taller than Central’s defensive backs. Those types of plays were largely responsible for negating Mifflinburg only having 69 yards on the ground.
“They have some real tall boys and they just threw it up there. It’s a tough play for a defensive back when a guy is that much taller, but hats off to them – they had a nice game plan and unfortunately, we came out on the short end,” said Central coach E.J. Smith.
The game featured over 800 yards of total offense. Central, which was only able to put up just over 160 yards and seven points in its opening game loss to Shikellamy last week, surpassed that and then some, putting up over 350 yards and quadrupling their points from last week.
For all the offense on both sides, though, it was a pair of momentum-changing sequences that likely was the difference in the game.
With the score tied 7-7, Central looked to have seized the momentum late in the second quarter as the Blue Jays forced Mifflinburg into a missed field goal with 1:15 remaining after the Wildcats had driven all the way to the Central 6-yard line.
On the first play of the Blue Jays’ ensuing drive, Caius Morrow hit Grant Snavely down the left sideline for a 61-yard reception to flip the field, and two plays later, found Jaxson Hoffman in the end zone for a 19-yard touchdown to give the Jays their first lead, 14-7, with under a minute to play in the half.
But it was at that point in the game that Martin found his groove, as he guided the Wildcats on a six-play, 64-yard drive, completing passes on all six plays, including a five-yard touchdown to Troy Dressler that tied the game with :08 left in the half and put a stop to any momentum Central thought it might have going into halftime.
“We were a little frustrated early on because he wasn’t taking what they were giving us and we weren’t executing the game plan. But the drive before the half, he started seeing it and doing good things and showed a lot of growth and then came out on the second half and really showed it,” said Dressler. “We talked to our receivers at the half about which routes would work and Chad just got the ball out quicker as the game went on.”
The Blue Jays then took the second-half kickoff and got a nice 45-yard return by Book to start on Mifflinburg’s half of the field. Morrow engineered a short six-play, 40-yard drive capped by Barron Oyar’s two-yard plunge into the end zone – the only rushing touchdown of the game for either team – to give Central the lead back, 21-14.
But Mifflinburg once again had an answer, as Martin came out and completed three passes and got an assist from a pass interference penalty, to put the Wildcats right back in the end zone on a 38-yard touchdown pass to Sean Grodotzke.
The Wildcats then forced a three-and-out by Central, and then put together a longer drive – this one nine plays and 72 yards – once again capped by a Martin touchdown pass, this one 16 yards to his 6’8 tight end, Kyler Troup, to put the Mifflinburg up 28-21 late in the third. Troup was the biggest matchup problem for the Blue Jays all night long, as he hauled in nine passes for 113 yards and the score.
Troy Dressler was another matchup problem for Central, as he caught eight passes for 100 yards of his own.
After forcing Central to go three-and-out on its next drive following Troup’s touchdown, Mifflinburg made it three straight drives with touchdowns on its next drive, which went for eight plays and 82 yards and was capped by Martin’s fifth touchdown toss of the night, this one a short four-yarder to Jackson Griffith for his second touchdown catch of the night. A 25-yard reception by Troup and a 21-yard catch by Dressler on a third-and-10 play were the two big gainers on that drive.
Not discouraged, Central fought back and pulled to within a score on Morrow’s touchdown pass to Snavely with :31 left in the game. But the Blue Jays’ onside kick attempt went out of bounds to seal it.
A week after throwing for just 88 yards, Morrow put together a nice game of his own with 237 yards on 11 completions, including three for touchdowns.
“Caius is a sophomore and I think he had a little bit of nerves the first week but I think you could see tonight he has some serious potential,” said Smith. “I’m happy with him, our receivers made great plays, we ran the ball nicely and it was everything we wanted to do. We’ve got some good speed and some good players. They’ve worked their butts off and it’s unfortunate we’re going home with a loss because we played pretty well.”
For Mifflinburg, as impressive as its offensive performance was, Dressler knows his team will need to shore up its defense moving forward, as the Wildcats gave up several long plays to Central, including seven plays of 15 or more yards.
“It was not our best defensive game at all. There were definitely some holes and we’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Dressler. “It wasn’t the prettiest, but the guys hung in there and kept battling.”
Mifflinburg 35, Central Columbia 28
Central Columbia (0-2) 0 14 7 7 – 28
Mifflinburg (2-0) 7 7 14 7 – 35
First quarter
7:58 – (M) Jackson Griffith 29-yard pass from Chad Martin (Herrera kick), 8-66, 4:02
Second quarter
8:50 – (CC) Eli Book 58-yard pass from Caius Morrow (Blake kick), 4-70, 1:48
:52 – (CC) Jaxson Hoffman 19-yard pass from Caius Morrow (Blake kick), 3-80, :23
:08 – (M) Troy Dressler 5-yard pass from Chad Martin (Herrera kick), 6-64, :44
Third quarter
8:48 – (CC) Barron Oyar 2-yard run (Blake kick), 6-40, 3:12
7:54 – (M) Sean Grodotzke 38-yard pass from Chad Martin (Herrera kick), 3-77, :54
2:03 – (M) Kyler Troup 16-yard pass from Chad Martin (Herrera kick), 9-72, 4:18
Fourth quarter
10:24 – (M) Jackson Griffith 4-yard pass from Chad Martin (Herrera kick), 8-82, 2:27
:31 – (CC) Grant Snavely 41-yard pass from Caius Morrow (Blake kick), 1-41, :10
Statistics
CC M
First downs 15 25
Rushes-net yards 25-121 32-69
Passing yardage 237 406
Passing 11-21-3-1 29-35-5-1
Fumbles-lost 3-1 2-1
Penalties-yards 11-80 7-78
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING:Central Columbia: Talon Piatt (9-57), Caius Morrow (8-20), Aiden Huntington (7-42), Barron Oyar (1-2-1); Mifflinburg: Radwil Susan (9-18), Sean Grodotzke (8-35), Chad Martin (8-1), Kaiden Kmett (4-11), Benjamin Reitz (2-5), TEAM (1-(-1))
PASSING:Central Columbia: Caius Morrow (11-21-237-3-1); Mifflinburg: Chad Martin (29-35-406-5-1)
RECEIVING: Central Columbia: Eli Book (4-100-1), Grant Snavely (2-102-1), Jaxson Hoffman (2-28-1), Alex Zeisloft (1-11), Parker Day (1-0), Aiden Huntington (1-(-4)); Mifflinburg: Kyler Troup (9-113-1), Troy Dressler (8-100-1), Sean Grodotzke (4-81-1), Jackson Griffith (4-67-2), Landen Murray (1-24), Benjamin Reitz (1-19), Kaiden Kmett (1-1), Radwil Susan (1-1)
