Maconaquah Schools

The Whitko Wildcats opened Friday nights game with Maconaquah by recovering a Brave fumble on an opening onside kick. The rest of the first half was all Maconaquah as the unbeaten Braves scored on their next five possessions and two of Whitko's possessions with defensive scores in racing to a 50-0 halftime lead. With the huge lead and the second half played with a running clock under the IHSAA "Mercy Rule", coach Ethan Robbin's 11th-ranked crew (IFCA Class 3A poll) tacked on another score at the end of the third quarter after Whitko scored its only TD of the night to make the final, 57-6. Maconaquah is now 4-0 overall and kept its Three Rivers Conference slate perfect at 2-0. Northwestern moved to 3-0 in league play with a 40-26 win vs Peru. Rochester is the only other unbeaten team (2-0) in one of the most balanced conference races in recent years. Whitko dropped to 0-3 in the TRC and is winless in four outings. The Braves bolted to a 29-0 first quarter lead . . . running only four offensive plays . . . and the rout was on. Maconaquah had the ball only 77 seconds in the opening period in building the 29-point lead. It took only two plays for Mac to score after Chase Washburn recovered a fumble caused by Evan Blake on Whitko's first possession. Brave quarterback Aiden Robinson hit Marcell Sims with a 10-yard TD pass and Nolan Tarrh added the first of his six perfect PAT kicks, 7-0. Maconaquah's iron-clad defense put up the next two scores with Brayden Tabler scooping and scoring on a nine-yard fumble return and Tarrh taking a 40-yard interception to paydirt, 22-0 with 5:11 showing. The lead ballooned to 29-0 with 2:35 showing when Robinson connected with Tarrh on a 88-yard scoring strike . . . the seventh-longest pass in Maconaquah history. Entering Brave territory only once in the first half, Whitko's second quarter possessions ended with a pair of punts and a turnover on downs. Robinson and his cohorts took advantage, with three more TD tosses . . . a 28-yarder to Sims, a six-yarder to Alexzander Martin and a 29-yard toss to Tarrh. Another TD (22-yard pass to Martin) was negated by one of Mac's four penalties on the night. The Braves finished with a season-low 42 penalty yards after entering the game averaging 12 penalties and 90 yards per outing. A muffed punt return attempt by the Braves gave Whitko a second chance at midfield in the third quarter and the Wildcats took advantage by scoring on a 46-yard pass play with 4:35 showing. After a 44-yard Robinson-to-Tre Rader TD pass was called back at the 2:06 mark, Sims hauled in a 54-yard TD aerial as the quarter ended. Freshman William "Billy the Kid" Friend ended the scoring, 57-6, much to the delight of his teammates by splitting the uprights. Robinson, the state's leading passer entering the game (315 ypg), was nearly perfect in picking apart the Whitko defense. He was connected on his first 20 passes and finished 21 of 22 for 393 yards and six touchdowns. He became only the second quarterback in school history to surpass 7,000 passing yards in a career. The senior signal-caller now has 7,282 passing yards in his four-years, trailing Mac's all-time leader Braxton Birner's 7,733. On the defensive side of the ball, Blake and freshman Jayden Fitzpatrick topped the tackle chart with nine stops apiece. DaKoda Dauenhauer had seven tackles, including three tackles for loss. Blake's monster night included five TFL's, a QB sack and a pair of fumbles caused. Freshman Marshall Overman had six tackles followed by Washburn's five. Washburn added a TFL, fumble recovery and a fumble caused. Eli Grzegorski had four stops. Tackles for Loss were also credited to Fitzpatrick (two) and one by James Stambaugh. Tabler recovered two Wildcat fumbles, including the Braves second TD of the game . . . Tabler's second defensive score of the season. > > > SIDELINE NOTES > > > . . . . MHS now leads the all-time series with Whitko, 11-2, winning the last 10 outings with the Wildcats . . . . The Braves have outscored Whitko, 323-20, in the past six meetings . . . . Maconaquah held Whitko to 12 yards of total offense . . . third-best effort since 1963 . . . . Mac's defense completely shut down Whitko's ground attack, limiting the hosts to a minus-46 yards rushing . . . a new Maconaquah single-game school record for rush defense . . . . Robinson's near-perfect night (21 of 22) for .955% is second-best ever in a MHS uniform. Tarrh set the school record by completing all 10 of his passes vs Peru two years ago, taking over QB duties for an injured Robinson and leading the Braves to a 42-0 victory . . . . Tarrh became Maconaquah career kick scoring leader. His six PAT kicks gives him 89 kicking points, surpassing the previous record of 84 held by Richie Leary . . . . Showcasing his talents on both sides of the ball and with his foot, Tarrh's 26 points vs Whitko gives him 263 points in his career and moved him past AJ Kelly into fifth place on Mac's career scoring list . . . . In last weeks win vs Northfield Tarrh became only the third receiver in school history to surpass 2,000 yards in a career. He now has 2,174, trailing only Fuddy Kile and Kelly . . . . Tarrh led Mac receivers with 134 yards on four catches. Others grabbing passes were: Sims (5-109), Rader (4-56), Treson Ambrose (2-49), Jorden Van Ness (3-27) and Martin (3-18) . . . . Maconaquah will travel to Peru Friday night