Marshall defensive lineman JR Vierstraete (3) is congratulated by teammates Mason Eickhoff (2) and Ethan Kennedy (44) after snagging an interception during the second quarter of a prep football game against Willmar at Mattke Field in Marshall on Friday night.

MARSHALL — When the Marshall and Willmar football teams met during the 2023 regular season, Willmar jumped out to a 14-0 first-half lead before Marshall scored four unanswered touchdowns in a 28-21 win. The Tigers did one better when they met again this year, scoring five unanswered touchdowns in a 33-7 victory over the Cardinals.

“They’ve got a good quarterback, good receivers, I think they’ve got four receivers over 6’4”, so they’re a tough, tough matchup,” Marshall head coach Terry Bahlmann said. “You know last year what the quarterback [Ellingson] did in the playoffs against us, so we were physical on defense. We gave up one but we were good after that.”

Bahlmann added that he felt his team had some mistakes to clean up on offense despite moving the ball well, citing specifically penalties and drops.

Two weeks into the season, Marshall has been a powerhouse on both sides of the ball. They defeated Jordan 26-8 in their season-opener on the road on Aug. 29.

The Cardinals struck first in the final two minutes of the first quarter. After forcing a Marshall 3-and-out, Jordan Ellingson completed a scramble drill pass to Cooper Schnichels on third-and-8 to set Willmar up in the red zone with a 22-yard gain. Ellingson then found Jackson Schnichels with the goalline fade along the sideline for a 12-yard touchdown and a 7-0 Willmar lead.

The early deficit marked the second season in a row that Marshall trailed early against Willmar after responding to a 14-0 second-quarter deficit with four unanswered touchdowns in last year’s 28-21 win over the Cardinals. This year proved to be more of the same

Still, the Willmar lead didn’t survive the quarter. Andrew Stelter burst through a series of tacklers for a big gain on the ground, setting Marshall up on the Willmar 26-yard line, and Gavin Schaefer finished the drive off by taking the ball outside the left tackle to run in the touchdown with 25 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Schaefer was unstoppable in the first half, taking 11 carries for 101 yards. He finished the day with 115 yards and three touchdowns on the ground, as well as a pair of receptions for 21 yards.

Beyond Schaefer’s ability to break through tackles, the Marshall offensive line already looked to be in midseason form. With the play of Jake Allex and Braylon Podratz on the outside, Derek Hisken and Aidan Mattison at guard and Eli Weedman at center, Marshall created gaps all night long and consistently created time in the pocket on pass plays.

“[The offensive line’s success is] a good thing because we’re only going to get better from here… they do a good job and they make us go,” Bahlmann said. “There are some things that we can clean up, but they’re working hard. If we get better every day, at the end of the year we’re going to be a good football team. We’ve got the backs to run hard, all three of them there, and Levi showed he could run it.”

A fumble on the snap left Marshall unable to nail the extra point, giving Willmar the ball back with a 1-point lead. The Cardinals tried to throw the ball after receiving the ensuing kick, but Mason Eickhoff jumped a route toward the sideline for an interception and returned the ball to the 1-yard line. He then received the handoff on the first offensive play to give Marshall a 12-7 lead with four seconds left in the first quarter.

“I was just thinking touchdown, I’m not going to lie. I was excited,” Eickhoff said. “Got the ball, saw one guy left, thought I was going to score, but went down at the one [yard line] and I was fine with that.”

Jayden Meister deflected a pass over the middle with 3:47 left in the fourth quarter and Eickhoff dove forward to grab the ball before it hit the ground for his second interception of the game. The play marked Eickhoff’s first game with multiple interceptions.

“You’ve just got to watch the guys when they run their route. You can see the quarterback but when the guys run their routes, you see the ball coming in,” Eickhoff said when asked what allowed him to be such an effective ballhawk on the day. “I just saw the ball coming in, went up and got it, and started running.”

Eickhoff wasn’t the only Tiger with a first-half interception. Five minutes into the second, JR Vierstraete tipped a pass and caught it at the line of scrimmage for another pick at Marshall’s 47-yard line.

The Tigers took advantage from there. Levi Maeyaert threw a pass to Kieler Rhea along the hash marks, with Rhea evading the defense all the way to the 10-yard line for a 40-yard gain. Maeyaert then ran the ball in from there to make the score 26-7 with 2:41 to play. 

As effective as Marshall’s secondary was on the day, the team’s defensive line continued to thrive all game long. The pass rush consistently applied pressure to Ellingson, even when they weren’t able to get the sack.

“That’s what we want to do, we want to put pressure on the quarterback and make him throw some balls to us,” Bahlmann said. “Our pass rush guys did a great job and then we got three of them [interceptions] on the backside, so defensively I thought we were really good.”

The Tigers struggled to throw the ball in the first half but Maeyaert found more of a rhythm after the break. In his first varsity start, he completed eight of his 17 attempts for 17 yards and an interception. He also showed off the speed with nine carries for 37 yards and a touchdown, trailing only Schaeffer’s 115 yards and Eickhoff’s 39 yards.

Maeyaert connected on a deep ball eight minutes after halftime when Jack Meier caught a bomb from the Marshall 45-yard line all the way to the Willmar 5-yard line. Yet, a holding call negated the big gain and instead pushed the Tigers back to their own 35-yard line. The Cardinals nearly forced Marshall to punt from there but, on fourth-and-11, the Willmar sideline was called with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to give Marshall a first down.

On the first play from scrimmage, Marshall started off the season with some trickery. Levi Maeyaert got the ball on a flea flicker and gunned it deep to a streaking Josh Kraft. The ball was underthrown but a pass interference call helped Marshall move the chains and they worked the ball to the Willmar 28-yard line before Hudson Sjoberg came up with an interception over the middle to give Willmar the ball back. 

In the final five minutes of the first half, the Marshall run game continued to gash the Willmar defense with Schaefer crossing the plane on a dive up the middle to make the score 19-7. 

A missed exchange on a Marshall handoff at the end of the third quarter allowed Willmar to recover the fumble at the 25-yard line with 44 seconds to play. 

Gavin Schaefer scored his third touchdown of the day with under five minutes remaining in the first quarter, making the score 32-7.

Marshall moves up to 2-0 on the season with the win and will look to keep the ball rolling when it hosts Waseca (1-1) on Friday at 7 p.m. Waseca is coming off a dominant 36-0 win against St. Peter and also defeated Marshall 28-0 in Waseca last season.