Maconaquah Schools

The Maconaquah Braves, sparked by Conner Eldridge's electrifying 79-yard touchdown run to start the second half, raced past the host Northfield Norsemen 42-6 Friday night. The win improved Mac's overall record to 3-0 and to 2-0 in Three Rivers Conference play. Rochester, Manchester and Lewis Cass (all future Brave opponents) also sport 2-0 TRC marks after notching wins Friday evening. Northfield remains winless in three outings. The Braves will celebrate homecoming Friday when TRC foe Whitko comes to town. Maconaquah's defense set up a pair of first quarter scores when the Braves turned a pair of Norse fumbles into touchdowns. Eli Grzegorski's fumble recovery at the Norse 27 on their opening possession gave MHS great field possession to start the game. Brave quarterback Aiden Robinson hit Nate Rader with a nine-yard TD pass at the 9:39 mark to give Mac a quick 6-0 start. Northfield's next possession ended at the Maconaquah 26 when Jakob Grant pounced on a loose ball after Nolan Tarrh's hard hit with 4:41 showing. The Braves were forced into a punting situation after a qb sack and two incompletions. Staring at a fourth-and-17 situation, freshman punter Jaxon Cole faked the punt and skirted 18 yards to the Norse 44 for the big first down. Two plays later Robinson teamed up with Jorden VanNess on a 25-yard TD strike and Mac led 13-0 with 2:43 showing after Tarrh booted the PAT kick. Northfield shut down the Braves in the second period, as Maconaquah ran only seven plays and were forced to punt twice. The hosts ate up over nine minutes of clock and moved to Mac's one-yard line on their second possession before VanNess ended the scoring threat with an interception in the endzone. Northfield's final desperation drive of the half was halted when Marcell Sims picked off his second Norse pass of the half. Sims would pilfer a third NHS pass on the opening play of the fourth quarter, tying the single-game school record of 3 interceptions currently held by Jim Welsh, Chris Black, Dan Percival and AJ Kelly. The defending TRC champions broke the game open in the third quarter with three touchdowns, highlighted by Eldridge's 79-yard TD romp, the eighth longest touchdown run in school history. The lead ballooned to 27-0 at the 9:00 mark when VanNess took a Robinson pass 38 yards to paydirt (Tarrh added the PAT). Northfield's ensuing possession moved into the Braves redzone, but big stops by DaKoda Dauenhauer and Carsten Hollars halted to scoring threat at Mac's 11-yard line. The Braves then put together a seven-play, 89-yard drive in a little under three minutes and took a 34-0 lead when Sims bulled his way in from two yards out (Tarrh kick) with 2:04 remaining. After the Norse finally dented the scoreboard on a one-yard run with 7:05 showing, Rader returned the ensuing kick 43 yards, giving Mac excellent field possession at the Northfield 34. After a pair of Sims runs moved the Braves to the 23, Robinson and Eldridge hooked up on a 23-yard TD pass. Sims ran in the conversion try for the final, 42-6. The final 5 minutes were played with a running clock with the IHSAA "Mercy Rule" in effect (with a team leading by 35 or more points). Unofficially, Hollars led the Brave defense with 15 tackles. Tarrh had 11, while Landon Morgan and Grant were each credited with 10. Joe Butcher (9) and Camron Metcalf (8) was followed by Sims' six stops. Getting five each were: Eldridge, Dauenhauer, Gibson Daily and Kyle Bockover. >>>Sideline Notes>>> . . . Maconaquah now leads the all-time series with Northfield, 10-6 . . . The Braves moved up in the polls after last weeks win vs Carroll. Mac is now ranked #5 in the USA/Today poll and jumped to #7 in the AP poll..... its highest AP ranking since 1991 . . . The Braves have now won a school-record 10 conference games in a row and their 12th straight regular-season win... also a MHS record . . . Robinson, the state's leader in TD passes entering the game, finished with four TD's vs the Norse He connected on 16 of 28 passes for a game-high 298 yards. Northfield failed to complete a pass (0-8), except for the four that Sims and VanNess hauled in . . . Since becoming Mac's starting quarterback a year ago, Robinson has thrown at least three touchdown passes in all but one of his 13 of 14 starts as signal-caller . . . Rader led Brave receivers with 70 yards on three receptions. VanNess (3-66), Tarrh (4-57), Eldridge (4-53) and Sims (2-52) rounded out the balanced receiving corps . . . Sims moved past Phillip Garnett and Jared Blake into sixth place on Mac's career-scoring list with 186 points . . . The 3-0 start is the first back-to-back 3-0 season starts in Maconaquah's 63-year history