Bayside chatter: Oct. 12

Talk about it

The Mariners almost gave away their game against the Northeast Range Nighthawks at Babbitt. As it was, the team lost by a score of 20-15.The Mariners fumbled the ball away on four of their first five plays from scrimmage, losing three of them. Two of those led to Nighthawk touchdowns. In total, the Mariners lost four fumbles in the game to one for the Nighthawks.

After the Mariners stopped the Nighthawks on downs following the opening kickoff, they returned the ball to them two plays later. Three plays after that Leif Maxwell recovered a Nighthawk fumble for the Mariners, only to see the Mariners give it back on the next play. Nine plays later the Nighthawks made them pay as Jack Vraa ran in from two yards out. Another Mariner fumble gave the Nighthawks the ball at the Mariner 31 and five plays later it was 12-0 as Vraa scored on a 17 yard run.

The Mariners ended up at the Nighthawk 49 on the ensuing kickoff and got on the scoreboard via a 19 yard run from Eben Fischer. A Jonah Koehler kick cut the deficit to 12-7 which was the score at halftime.

On the Mariner's second possession of the second half, quarterback Luke Small found Fischer for a 67 yard scoring strike to give the Mariners the lead. A pass from Small to Fischer for the two point conversion made it 15-12 and it looked like the Mariners had turned the corner but it was not to be. The Nighthawks moved 72 yards on 10 plays and scored on a 30 yard pass from QB Jordan Villebrun to Vraa. The Mariners went three and out, fumbled again and had four incomplete passes on their last three possessions.

Fischer led the Mariner offense with 14 points and 111 yards receiving and rushing. Leif Maxwell led the defense with 12 tackles followed by Michael Klofstad with 10, Luke Small with 9 and Preston Westerlund with 7 plus a sack.

After six weeks of play the Big North Conference has South Ridge and Mounrtain Iron-Buhl with one loss apiece and Bigfork, Ely and Northwoods with two losses.

Section 5 has South Ridge on top, Cromwell and Floodwood at 3-3 and Silver Bay and McGregor at 2-4. At this point it still looks like Silver Bay at McGregor in the first round.

The Volleyball team lost 3-0 to McGregor (26-28,19-25 & 15-25). In this match Kari Smerud had 15 set assists, Alicia Nopola had 6 kills and 3 blocks and Allison Moris had 4 ace serves.

Cook County defeated the Mariners 3-0 (20-25,21-25 & 18-25). Alicia Nopola had 8 kills and 5 ace serves, Rachel Dilley had 3 kills and 8 digs and Kari Smerud had 13 set assists.

At the Two Harbors tournament the Mariners made it to the championship game where they fell 20-25 & 18-25 to Duluth Denfeld. Earlier they defeated Two Harbors 20-25,25-20 & 15-13 and Proctor 27-25 & 26-24. They followed this up with a 3-0 (25-13,25-14 & 25-11) victory over Duluth Marshall. In this match Alicia Nopola had14 kills and 5 ace serves, Ali Morris had 10 ace serves, Kari Smerus had 21 set assists and Rebecca Dilley had 5 kills and 12 digs.

Tags: silver bay, sports