Marquette’s comeback runs out of clock, and Negaunee keeps the trophy

MARQUETTE, Mich. — Marquette had first-and-goal at the Negaunee 6 midway through the fourth quarter Thursday night at William R. Hart Stadium, trailing 30-14. Four plays later the Sentinels had gone backward and turned the ball over on downs at the 9.

That should have settled it. Four minutes later Marquette was lining up for a two-point conversion to tie the game.

The Miners held on, 30-28, in the opener for both teams, and the Diamond Jubilee Trophy stays in Negaunee for a second straight year. The margin came down to a two-point pass off a face mask and an onside kick the Miners fell on.

Three catches, three touchdowns

Negaunee ran the triple option most of the night and got very little from it. Mason Swenor carried 20 times for 14 yards. Vince Tincknell added six carries for 17. Aside from Waterman’s keepers, the Miners did not move the ball on the ground.

They did not have to. Waterman threw eight passes and completed six for 176 yards. Two went to Dellangelo, for 61 and 63 yards. A third Dellangelo touchdown, from 21 yards out, came on a halfback pass thrown by Waylon Harvala. Three catches, three touchdowns, 145 yards.

The first came on second-and-10 late in the first quarter, two plays after Marquette had turned the ball over on downs at the Negaunee 40. Dellangelo beat Brody Clements down the sideline and was not caught. Korsman caught the two-point pass. Eight-nothing.

The second, early in the second quarter, was the same route to the same side, and it went for 63 yards. This time Dellangelo came back to catch the conversion in double coverage. Sixteen-nothing, and Marquette had yet to reach the red zone.

“He’s the best skill kid I’ve seen in a while,” Mason said afterward. “He’s got amazing hands, he’s got great speed, and he battles. He’s a competitor.”

Marquette and Negaunee players go up for the ball along the sideline in the first half.

The defense that kept it close

The strange part of a 16-0 hole is how well Marquette’s defense played while it opened up. Matt Bush’s unit forced two turnovers before halftime. Nash Hoffman intercepted Waterman on third-and-20 in the first quarter with Rocky Sholl in the quarterback’s face. Late in the half, Negaunee pitched the option at its own 22, the ball came loose, and Will Bradley recovered it.

The interception went nowhere; it produced the turnover on downs two plays before Dellangelo’s first touchdown. The fumble, Marquette cashed in. Dylan Pond picked up a few yards up the middle, and then Leonard faked the dive, kept the ball and pitched late to Faccio, who found the corner with 1:46 on the clock. Eric Epper’s kick made it 16-7 at the half.

The first half was closer than the score. Marquette also gave away 30 yards on back-to-back personal fouls in the first quarter and twice turned the ball over on downs inside Negaunee territory. Mason kept returning to the start of the game.

“You can’t start slow like that,” he said. “In these games, when it’s a rivalry and all those types of things, that’s important. We didn’t do that, and we’ve got to learn from it.”

A halfback pass, and an answer

Marquette came out of the locker room and stopped three straight Negaunee runs for a combined loss. On third-and-9 from the 21, coach Jeff Niemi called the halfback pass. Harvala took the pitch, stopped and threw back across the field to Dellangelo, alone in the end zone. Korsman caught his second two-point pass. 24-7.

Marquette’s answer took eight plays and two Negaunee pass-interference calls. Leonard hit Clements down the sideline for 30 yards to the 5. Two runs went nowhere. On third down, Leonard faked the dive again and pitched to Robinson, who beat the edge to the pylon. Epper’s kick made it 24-14 with 5:09 left in the third.

Marquette’s Brody Clements (5) and Negaunee’s Max Frustaglio (88) go up for a pass in the third quarter.

Negaunee came back with its longest drive of the night, keyed by a 34-yard catch by Cole Prusi and a long grab by Korsman over Evan Brown. Waterman finished it himself, rolling away from two tacklers and scoring from 13 yards out. Marquette intercepted the two-point pass. That interception is the reason the rest of the night was possible.

Four minutes

The sequence that ended at the 9 was Marquette’s worst of the game. A pitch to Robinson went backward and he fell on it, turning first-and-goal at the 6 into second-and-goal at the 17. Three plays later a swing pass to Faccio was stopped short of the goal line.

Negaunee could not move it and punted from its own 9. Clements fielded the kick and returned it to the Negaunee 39. On second-and-13, Leonard had time and threw 42 yards to Blackburn for the touchdown. Pond ran in the two points. 30-22, 3:50 to play.

Skyler Blackburn hauls in a 42-yard touchdown pass from Winston Leonard in the fourth quarter.

Zdunek’s onside kick took a high bounce and Marquette recovered at midfield, by roughly the length of the ball. On the next snap Leonard threw deep down the left side to Brown, who caught it in stride and ran the rest of the 52 yards. A flag came out and was picked up. 30-28, under three minutes left.

Marquette celebrates in the end zone after Blackburn’s fourth-quarter touchdown catch.

The tying two-point pass went to Clements on a slant and glanced off his face mask.

The Sentinels tried the onside kick again. Negaunee recovered it, but Marquette was offside, and the dead-ball penalty forced a re-kick. This time the Miners’ hands team was waiting, and Negaunee took over at its own 48 with 2:31 left.

Waterman kept three times for short gains. On fourth-and-1 from the Marquette 41 in the final minute, Negaunee handed to Tincknell up the middle for the first down that ended it.

What it means

Negaunee is the smallest school in Division 5 this season and lost 29-28 in overtime in the first round of the playoffs a year ago. Niemi, in his second season, has built the program on blocking and tackling. On Thursday it won on three deep balls. Whether the running game catches up will decide how far the Miners get.

Marquette finished 6-4 last fall, third in the Big North Conference, and lost 38-34 to unbeaten Gaylord in the postseason. The Sentinels have a first-year starting quarterback who threw for 213 yards, six receivers who caught at least one pass, and a defense that forced two turnovers and picked off a two-point try. They also gave up three long touchdown passes to the same receiver, and that was the game.

“Until you see your kids in live action, with crowds and everything else that goes with it, you don’t know what you’re going to get,” Mason said. “I was proud of them. They did not fold up their tents and go home.”

Marquette hosts Menominee, the defending Division 7 state champion, next Friday. “It’s going to be tough,” Mason said. “We’ve got to get back to work and get some things cleaned up.”