Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall running back Andrew Stelter (1) is embraced by offensive guard Braylon Podratz during a prep football game against St. Peter on Friday at Mattke Field in Marshall. The Tigers defeated the Saints 57-0 in their final regular-season home game.

MARSHALL — Whether through the air or on the ground, St. Peter had no way to stop the Marshall football team’s big play ability on Friday night. The Tigers scored early and often as they routed the Saints 57-0.

“We’re getting better all the time. Our defense has been solid, our offense is starting to get explosive,” Marshall head coach Terry Bahlmann said. “We had that fumble on the first drive, we left that one there, then after that in the first half, we thought we did pretty good.”

Andrew Stelter set the tone for the day on Marshall’s second drive of the game. A false start penalty had the Tigers facing a third-and-6 from the 49-yard line, but Stelter took a handoff outside the left tackle all the way to the house for the game’s first touchdown.

Marshall’s offense didn’t stay on the sidelines for long as another defensive 3-and-out gave the Tigers possession at the 40-yard line after a Stelter return. On the first play from scrimmage, quarterback Levi Maeyaert heaved the ball deep down the right sideline to Kieler Rhea. The ball was underthrown, but Rhea quickly adjusted to come back to the ball and catch it at the 1-yard line, from which Gavin Schaefer punched in the touchdown. 

Maeyaert completed two of his eight attempts on the game but the deep throws gave him 86 yards on the pair of completions. He threw one touchdown and one interception.

“We want to and we can throw the ball. We want to be able to do it and have kids comfortable with it,” Bahlmann said, adding that he feels Maeyaert has a good arm and the team’s receivers have the ability to make plays.

St. Peter got its first first down of the night on a Marshall facemask penalty and got another first down with a completion on the next play. Yet, the Tiger defense locked in from there to force the punt.

With Marshall pinned deep in its own territory, the Saints got a stuff, sack and incompletion to force Marshall’s first 3-and-out of the night. The Tigers punted, but the Saints muffed it and Cannon Craigmile recovered to give Marshall the ball on the St. Peter 49-yard line with 90 seconds to play in the first quarter.

Once in possession of the ball, the Tigers made the Saints pay. Maeyaert hucked another pass deep down the right sideline. While the defensive back had good position, wide receiver Josh Kraft leaped up and Mossed the cornerback, tipping the ball up in the air before bringing it in for a 49-yard touchdown, making the score 21-0.

“[I was thinking about] just taking control of the opportunity that I got and trust the quarterback to throw a good ball, which he did,” Kraft said. “Every single offensive practice, we practice contested catching. We’ve been in that situation before a lot in practice, getting the ball up in there and going up and getting it. I ended up grabbing it and scored the touchdown.”

Bahlmann said he was happy for Josh for making the play, noting that Kraft’s willingness to switch from the quarterback position to wide receiver in order to do what’s best for the team is indicative of his character.

After forcing another 3-and-out, a 36-yard punt return from Stelter set the Tigers up just outside of the red zone to start the second quarter. Marshall ran the ball down the Saints’ throat until Schaefer again cut up the middle for his second touchdown of the day. The Saints jumped offside on the point after attempt and Marshall accepted the penalty, opted to go for 2, and converted with a rushing play to make the score 29-0.

With the Marshall offense spending so much time in the endzone, the defense decided to join in on the fun as well. Kraft and the Tiger defensive line forced a pressure on a St. Peter pass play and an ill-advised throw was picked off by Ethan Kennedy. The senior linebacker tipped the ball up before catching it and returning it all the way to the end zone for a defensive score. 

“When I tipped it to myself, I was more surprised that I caught it,” Kennedy said with a laugh. “I just had the nerves rush through. It felt great.”

St. Peter got its first impact play of the game when Maeyaert targeted Stelter on another deep ball. Defensive back Kaden Throldahl got to the ball well ahead of Stelter, but the Marshall running back did what he could to fight for the ball. He got two hands and possession of it before the two went to the ground, but wasn’t able to fully wrestle it away from Throldahl and the Saints’ offense took over at their own 7-yard line.

As soon as St. Peter’s offense took the field, they got right back off. The Saints tried to go for a big play of their own with a deep ball, but Shep Jensen intercepted it to give Marshall the ball back.

The Saints went into halftime with 31 yards of offense while facing a 36-0 deficit. They more than doubled their yardage on one play when Throldahl picked up a 31-yard gain on the ground to bring St. Peter into the red zone for the first time.

Facing first-and-goal from the 10, JR Vierstraete got a sack to back the Saints up to the 14-yard line, but a Marshall penalty shifted the Saints forward to second-and-goal from the 5. St. Peter inched forward before electing to go for it on fourth down with a jump pass, but Mason Eickhoff read the play and made the interception, returning it to the 10-yard line instead of taking the touchback.

The Tigers started driving from the 10 until, with the ball at their own 38, Schaefer broke off a 62-yard touchdown run down the left side of the field for a 42-0 Tiger lead. Schaefer finished the night with a team-leading 10 carries for 90 yards and three touchdowns. Stelter and Eickhoff added 51 yards on three carries and 40 yards on six carries respectively, while Kennedy, O’Donnell and Meister each had more than 30 rushing yards as well.

A Jayden Meister interception set Marshall up at the St. Peter 40-yard line toward the end of the third quarter. The Tigers’ reserves took the field and continued to play effective offense, with Cannon Craigmile punching in a QB keeper to increase the Marshall lead to 50 points four seconds into the fourth quarter.

Milo Swenson also scored a rushing touchdown for Marshall with three minutes to play to make the score 57-0. 

“It’s always fun for those guys. It keeps our program strong in the future and it keeps guys coming back,” Bahlmann said of getting new faces into the endzone. “Those guys do a lot of the dirty work in practice, have to run the scout team, so it’s fun to see them make a play.”

Marshall was marching down the field on the game’s opening drive with its ground-and-pound offense, but a Mason Eickhoff fumble at the St. Peter 8-yard line abruptly ended the drive. Still, the Tigers forced a 3-and-out to get the ball right back to set up their go-ahead touchdown.

Marshall will wrap up its regular season on the road at New Ulm (4-3) on Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. New Ulm started the season strong but has now lost three of its last four after a 35-7 loss to Jordan on Friday. The Tigers beat the Eagles 35-7 when the teams met in Marshall last year. 

In preparation for the matchup with a short week ahead, Bahlmann said Marshall will have a particularly light week of practice but is aiming to finish strong and earn the top seed for the section tournament. If the Tigers earn the No. 1 seed, they could host the section championship game for the first time since 2019 after falling on the road against top-seeded Hutchinson each of the last two years.

“We’re doing great and we’re ready to get Hutch at home. We want ’em,” Kennedy said.