REBELS FOOTBALL LOSES TO TMB

The MCC Rebels had gotten off to a great start this season with two impressive wins against weaker opponents. Friday night the Rebels would face one of their toughest tests of the season against the Tracy Milroy Balaton Panthers.

The Rebels have knocked off the Panthers in three straight matchups including last year’s section final but on Friday the Panthers would extract some revenge.

MCC got off to a great start. The Panthers came out looking to slow down Carter Benda and the Rebel running attack and they were effective. Benda’s first four carries were runs of -2, -1, 0, and -1 yards. The Rebels were able to move the ball by throwing to tight end Christian Tentinger who got open in some respect due to the attention paid to Benda. Tentinger would have 4 catches for 53 yards on the drive including two key first downs and a catch that set up a short run for another first. The Rebels got to the 18 yard line when Benda would get loose off the left hand side of the formation for 6 points. Benda would then catch the two point conversion but would sustain a solid hit as he crossed the goal line. The hit was enough to remove Benda from the game though the Rebels led 8-0 with 6:37 to play in the first half. The Rebels offense would struggle the rest of the game picking up only 3 first downs the rest of the contest and other than a 40 yard pass to Tanner Graphenteen the Rebels never really threatened to score.

The Panthers would fumble the ball on their first possession of the game but then they would score on three consecuplacing tive drives. Two drives in the first quarter with big plays in the passing game. The first scoring strike would be a Trevor Smith to Blake Kurger 58 yard touchdown pass. The Rebels secondary was burned on the play from the beginning and the Panthers were within two points with 5:13 to play in the first quarter. On the very next drive it was Smith to Alexander Shuh on a 25 yard touchdown pass to make the score 12-8 with 1:28 remaining in the first quarter. The Panthers would score with 6:29 reaming in the first half on a Caden Johnson one yard run and the extra point made the halftime score 19-8 in favor of TMB.

The second half was a defensive battle controlled by the Panthers as the Rebels were looking for any kind of spark. The Rebels tried to find a running game with Aiden Dierks and Abe Paulzine but the Panthers were taking care of that. It appeared with Benda out of the game the Panthers focussed their attention on now allowing Tentinger to get open like he did in the first drive of the game. All in all the Panthers did a very good job of putting the clamps on the Rebel offense. Caden Johnson touched the ball far more than he did in the first half and he was effective in moving the chains and picking up some first downs. Yet the Panthers failed to score in the 3rd quarter and wouldn’t score again until the final three minutes. Caden Johnson polished the game off with a two yard scoring run with 2:55 to play to make the final score 25-8.

The Rebels offense has been focused on the running game the last several years with the passing game mixed in to take advantage of mismatches or to keep teams honest defending the run. Friday night the Rebels had to force the passing game more than they would like and they struggled. MCC will have a week to prepare for the Saint James Saints. The Saints have struggled the last several years but they are coming off an overtime loss so one has to expect a more competitive game than we saw a year ago. The road game starts at 7:00 pm Friday evening.