MARINETTE — Fresh off a summer spent spraying line drives all over the baseball diamond, Chase MacGregor provided the Marinette High School football team with the home run hitter it has sorely needed.
MacGregor accounted for over half of Marinette’s 472 yards of total offense, rushing for 263 yards and four touchdowns on just nine carries, as the Marines turned their season-opener against Clintonville into a 46-6 demolition derby on Friday.
Marinette’s junior quarterback hit the ground running, literally, on the first play of the game, breaking off a 65-yard scoring jaunt for the first points of the night.
They wouldn’t be the last.
Marinette found its way into the end zone again on its third possession of the first quarter, with MacGregor kicking off the drive with a 44-yard run before capping it off with a 2-yard plunge to put the Marines on top 12-0.
“It’s fun when you score a lot of points and don’t give up a lot of points either,” Marinette coach Nate Anderson said “I thought we had good energy tonight. We had some electrifying plays and I thought that the kids ran hard. Our defense attacked the ball. It’s always nice to start off with something like that.”
Cooper Smith got in on the big-play party with a 74-yard scoring run midway through the second quarter, while a 29-yard touchdown gallop from MacGregor and a successful 2-point conversion run by Ethan Doubek lifted Marinette to a 26-0 lead with 4:12 remaining in the first half.
Clintonville’s lone score of the night came on its next possession, as Jaxson Baribeau hit Sam Wegener for a 28-yard touchdown pass to trim the Truckers’ deficit down to 20.
Marinette (1-0) responded with a five-play, 67-yard scoring drive that was finished off by a 25-yard run by Braxton Polzin, as the Marines seized a 32-6 edge entering halftime.
“How many downfield blocks did we have tonight? We didn’t just march down the field. When we had those electrifying plays, I was seeing three or four blocks down the field. That’s something that we preach on offense: every single person finding someone to go and block until the whistle,” Anderson said. “We haven’t had that in the past, so it was nice to get those electrifying plays because we do not get a lot of those, but we do have a lot of electrifying players this year.”
The two teams traded possessions to start the second half before MacGregor bulldozed his way through tackles and into the end zone on a one-play, 69-yard scoring drive to make it a 34-point game at the 6:30 mark of the third quarter.
Marinette’s final touchdown of the night came one play into the fourth quarter, as Brady Eastman tacked on a 57-yard run, which put the Marines ahead by 40 and also began the running clock for the Truckers.
Marinette’s defense, which allowed a mere 100 yards of total offense, forced three turnovers, including two interceptions, one by MacGregor and the other courtesy of Elijah Wimbush.
Wegener, who found himself on the All Toon Award watchlist in the preseason as one of the top wide receivers in the state, was held to eight catches for 77 yards and a touchdown.
Clintonville (0-1) finished with a scant six yards rushing on 14 carries, while three different quarterbacks in Baribeau, Zachary Johnson and Israel Lerma combined to go 12-of-25 for 94 yards.
“We had a good defensive plan. We broke down and kept everything in front of us, but the best thing was that, when guys did get the ball in open space, we made the tackles. That’s something that we really stress and was something that we’ve struggled with in past years,” Anderson said.
Smith finished his night with six carries for 58 yards and a touchdown. Mason Hofherr chipped in 52 yards on nine touches, Polzin had four totes for 31 yards, and Doubek added 19 yards on nine carries.
Light em’ up
Marinette’s 46 points were the second-most of Anderson’s five-year tenure. The Marines defeated Green Bay East 47-0 last season.
Live forever
Marinette honored a true Marine legend at halftime, as the school formally dedicated the track at Higley Stadium to longtime track and field coach John Sitek.
Sitek coached the Marine thinclads from 1980 until 2007 before serving as an assistant from 2007 until 2022.
Under Sitek’s guidance, Marinette won three girls State championships (1992-1994), 16 Bay Conference titles, 13 Regional crowns and nine Sectional championships. Sitek coached 21 individual State championships and also coached two title-winning relay teams.
He was inducted into the Wisconsin Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Marinette High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018.
Up nextMarinette will travel across the river to battle archrival Menominee in the 118th edition of the M&M Game, Friday at Walton Blesch Field.
Menominee has won five straight M&M Games, including a 26-0 shutout last season. The Maroons hold the all-time series lead 59-51-7.
“I told our kids to enjoy this (win), but when that alarm clock goes off on Saturday and we come in for film, it’s M&M week, and we’re focused on that,” Anderson said. “No disrespect to Clintonville, but the team we’re playing next week is 100 times better, and we know that.”
The M&M Game kicks off at 7 p.m.
Marinette 46, Clintonville 6Marinette 12 20 8 6 — 46
Clintonville 0 6 0 0 — 6
Leading passers — Marinette: Doubek 0-2; MacGregor 0-3; Clintonville: Baribeau 9-17-78-TD-2INTs; Johnson 2-5-11; Perma 1-3-5
Leading rushers — Marinette: MacGregor 9-263-4TDs; Smith 6-58-TD; Eastman 1-57-TD; Hofherr 9-52; Polzin 4-31-TD; Doubek 9-19; Clintonville: Lincoln Korth 5-22; Johnson 2-8
Leading receivers — Clintonville: Wegener 8-77-TD; Johnson 2-11; Josh Galland 1-5; Trenton Conradt 1-1
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