Opportunity knocked for the McDonald County football team Friday night in its 28-6 loss at Marshfield High School, but the Mustangs couldn't answer the door.
It took McDonald County just 32 seconds and two plays from scrimmage to take a 6-0 lead, but the Mustangs failed to convert on three chances in the red zone on their next three possessions.
"The offense did fantastic between the 10s," said head coach John Diehl. "In the first half we ran up and down the field. The only problem was we couldn't finish the drives. We just ran out of gas. That is something we are going to be working on this week -- finishing drives when we get in the red zone."
Marshfield took advantage of McDonald County's missed chances with touchdowns in the second and third quarters and two in the fourth for the Blue Jays first win of the year.
McDonald County struck on its first possession like the lightning that delayed the game for 40 minutes at halftime.
Starting at its own 43-yard line, Isrrael De Santiago ran for 22 yards on first down before Oakley Roessler cut through the Blue Jay defense for a 35-yard touchdown to give the Mustangs a 6-0 lead with 11:28 left in the first quarter.
Marshfield then put together a nine-play drive before being forced to punt, with McDonald County taking over at its own 18-yard line.
De Santiago ran for consecutive first downs before Peyton Barton hit Cole DelosSantos for 12 yards on the Mustangs' first pass play of the game.
Barton followed with a keeper for 7 yards, and Roessler's 22-yard run gave the Mustangs a first down on the Blue Jay 15-yard line. But after De Santiago ran for 3 yards, a fumbled exchange, an incompletion and a sack gave Marshfield the ball back on its 19-yard line.
The Mustang defense forced a three-and-out to set up the offense on the Mustangs' own 46-yard line. Roessler ran for 12 yards, Barton hit De Santiago for 11 more on a screen and De Santiago ran for 17 to move the ball inside the Marshfield 10-yard line -- before the drive stalled on downs.
The defense again held Marshfield without a first down, giving the Mustangs the ball on the Blue Jay 32-yard line.
Barton hit DelosSantos for 7 yards on second down, but, on fourth and four, Barton's pass fell incomplete to give Marshfield the ball on its own 26-yard line.
On first down, Blue Jay quarterback Garrett Nunnally tried to hand off to Jason Whittington, but the two collided with the ball coming free. Instead of being a break for McDonald County, Nunnally picked up the loose ball and got outside a converging defense and went untouched for a 74-yard touchdown. Kaleb Kracman's PAT gave Marshfield a 7-6 lead with 7:01 left in the first half.
The teams traded punts to the end the first before lightning forced a standard 15-minute break into a 40-minute wait for the second half.
"I don't think the delay helped us at all," Diehl said. "It enabled us to get a little lethargic. We have a small squad and it told the tale. We didn't have enough gas in the tank to finish the thing off. We are going to keep working to get in a little bit better shape to have a little more endurance. It's something we are battling right now, but we have good numbers in the freshman class and great numbers in the junior high. The future is not bad, it's really good. The light at the end of the tunnel is not a train, it's actually opportunity."
Marshfield took advantage of the long break to score on its first possession of the second half. The Blue Jays marched 65 yards in seven plays with Brock Utecht hitting Whittington with a 10-yard touchdown pass to cap the drive. Kracman's kick gave Marshfield a 14-6 lead with 8:39 remaining in the third quarter.
The teams traded possessions until Marshfield put the game away with touchdowns in its final two possessions of the game. Utecht ran for a 4-yard TD with 7:54 left and Nunnally added a 15-yard touchdown with just 42 seconds left.
McDonald County finished with 213 total yards, including 136 on the ground. De Santiago led the ground game with 93 yards on 14 carries while Roessler finished with 70 yards on eight carries.
Barton threw for 77 yards by hitting eight of 16 attempts. DelosSantos had four catches for 34 yards while Roessler had two catches for 24 yards and De Santiago had two for 19 yards.
Marshfield totaled 300 yards, 290 coming on the ground. Nunnally had 127 yards on 16 carries while Whittington had 89 yards on 13 carries and Utecht had 50 yards on 12 carries.
McDonald County falls to 0-2 for the season heading into its Sept. 2 game, when the Mustangs host Seneca. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
Sports on 09/01/2016