Maconaquah Schools

Big plays and a tenacious defense on "Senior Night" powered the Maconaquah Braves to a 21-13 Three Rivers Conference win over the Lewis Cass Kings Friday evening. The victory, coupled with Rochester's 51-14 win vs Northfield, left both teams as the leagues lone unbeatens with 6-0 records. Maconaquah is now 7-0 on the year and will travel to Manchester Friday for another TRC contest before heading to Rochester in two weeks in the regular season finale. Cass fell to 4-3 overall and is now 4-2 in the TRC. The Braves roared out of the starting gate in the first quarter, scoring three times and grabbing a 21-7 lead after the opening12 minutes. Coach Michael Fenters' defense then took over . . . and preserved the hard-earned win by stopping Cass inside Mac's 20-yard line on three possessions the remainder of the game. Maconaquah opened the game scoring on its first two possessions. Nolan Tarrh gave Mac good field position by returning the opening kick to his own 41. After Marcell Sims gained 25 yards on first down, Conner Eldridge got another first down with a 12-yard pass from Aiden Robinson. After Robinson carried for eight, Sims got the call twice and scored from a yard out at the 10:18 mark for the game's first score. Tarrh's PAT kick put MHS on top, 7-0. A Cass punt pinned the Braves at their own one-yard line after its first possession came up empty. Starting at their own one, the Braves kept the Kings off balance with a mixture of Sims' runs and Robinson's passing. Maconaquah methodically moved downfield, covering the 99 yards in 2:56 when Jorden VanNess took a Robinson aerial 53 yards to paydirt at the 5:21 mark. Tarrh's extra-point boot put MHS on top, 14-0. It was the second 99-yard scoring drive in two weeks after the Braves had another one last week at Northwestern. Tarrh would step into limelight once again at the end of the quarter after Cass chopped the lead to 14-7 with 44 seconds left in the opening act. The speedy junior grabbed the ensuing King kick at his own 19 yard line, evaded several defenders early and then electrified the home crowd with an 81-yard TD sprint to the endzone. It was his second kickoff return for a touchdown this season, tying the school record and pushed Mac's lead to 21-7 at the break. Maconaquah's defense stopped Cass on both of it's second quarter possessions and kept the Braves on top, 21-7, at at halftime. The Kings had the ball for 10 of the 12 minutes in the second period and saw their biggest threat end at the Mac 21 on a fourth-and-eight pass that Tarrh swatted away. Defense was the name of the game in the third quarter as the Braves once again rose to the occasion and stopped a Cass scoring threat after the Kings took the opening kick and moved to within 10 yards of paydirt. Huge stops by Carsten Hollars, Chase Washburn and DaKoda Dauenhauer had the Kings facing a fourth-and-four at the six. Gavin Smith took the handoff for the Kings, but was run of out bounds two yards short by Tarrh. The Kings got the ball back two minutes later after a Mac punt and were once again threatening at the Brave 21. They ran three plays to the 16 and were facing another big fourth down play to try to cut into Maconaquah's lead. Zion Grogg got the call for Cass but came up a yard short when greeted by Hollars and Joe Butcher. Cass sliced the deficit to 21-13 with 7:17 left in the game after completing a 12-play, 65-yard scoring drive. Hollars and Butcher combined to block the all-important PAT kick. Taking over at their own 30 after Martin Alexzander returned the ensuing kick 16 yards, the Braves moved into Cass territory before the drive stalled with 2:44 remaining. Looking to tie the score, Cass moved to the MHS 34 in three plays. The Kings netted only three yards on their next two plays as Landon Morgan and Hollars came through with nice stops. Facing a fourth-and-six after a timeout at the 1:24 mark, the Kings ran a double-reverse throw to the endzone that was batted down by Sims at the goal line. The Braves then ran out the clock on their next three snaps. Unofficially, Sims and Hollars led Brave tacklers with 16 stops apiece. Others at the top of the tackle chart included: Morgan (12), Butcher (9) and Washburn (8). Getting six tackles each were Eldridge and Tarrh, while Dauenhauer was credited with five. Aiden Ousley and Gibson Daily each had four. > > > SIDELINE NOTES > > > . . . The win is Maconaquah's 16th consecutive regular season triumph... a school record . . . The win is the 14th straight conference win . . . also a school record . . . It is the second time in MHS history that the Braves have defeated Cass three straight years . . . Cass now leads the all-time series, 43-16 . . . The Braves were ranked No. 6 in this weeks AP Class 3A poll . . . Mac's highest ranking since 1991 . . . Sims led the Braves rushing with 104 yards on 15 carries. He becomes the seventh player in MHS history to surpass 2,000 yards in a career. He now has 2,023 heading into Week 8 and moved past Dominic Brogan into seventh place on the career rushing list . . . Sims moved past AJ Kelly into fourth place on the career scoring list with 258 points . . . Mac's 7-0 start is the second-best in school history. Last year Maconaquah won its first 12 games . . . Hollars is now the No. 2 tackler in school history with 280 tackles, moving past Zac Schultz . . . Tarrh's big night moved him past Jared Blake into seventh place all-time scoring with 191 points . . . Cass owned the Time of Possession during the game: 31:09 to Mac's 16:51 and ran 15 more plays . . . Robinson has now passed for 2,095 yards this season. Only two MHS quarterbacks have passed for over 2,000 yards in a season . . .Robinson the past two seasons and Braxton Birner in 2022 and 2023 . . . 13 Seniors were recognized: Conner Eldridge, Landon Morgan, Griffin Baldwin-Mimms, Carsten Hollars, Camron Metcalf, Cristian Rizo, Kyle Bockover, Dominick Miller, Joe Butcher, Gibson Daily, Jakob Grant, Jakub Bochomulski and Dawson Newnes.