Beer dominates in HOF game against Antigo

The Northland Pines varsity football team opened the 2025 season with a loud 21-14 victory over Antigo in the Hall of Fame game last week in Eagle River, where senior wide receiver Jacob Beer collected all three touchdowns on the night.

First-year head coach Justin Nimsgern picked up his first career win on opening night and said that he and his team got over the early nerves and played football.

“We have a lot of young guys, so very nervous energy coming out,” he said. “But we had great energy all week, we’ve had great energy preseason, and it just takes that first kick off and first couple of hits and then they were kind of rolling.”

Antigo got on the board first late in the first quarter on a short run into the end zone to lead 7-0 after one. On a drive in the second, Beer got his first touchdown of the year on a jet sweep from about the eight-yard line. He worked around a block and ran down the left sideline into the end zone just inside the pylon to tie things up at 7-7.

On a similar play nearing halftime, Beer fought off a few tackles this time and maneuvered his way for six, and the Eagles led 14-7 at the break after Tyler Vojta converted on an extra point.

From there, the defense did its job for the remainder of the night and limited Antigo in the second half with some big stops.

One of those stops was on fourth down, where a botched snap forced Antigo into a turnover after its quarterback touched his knee on the ground after recovering the football.

“One of our staples is hustle and pursuit, so we had a lot of guys to the ball every drive trying to get opportunities of takeaways,” Nimsgern stated in a postgame interview. “Just having multiple guys on the ball, and I think they showed that a lot of times.”

After a slow start to the second half, Antigo tied things at 14-14 with just over four minutes remaining in the third.

The biggest play of the night on offense came early on in the fourth, when senior quarterback Aiden Minx tossed a ball down the left sideline that found Beer in double coverage for 29 yards and the eventual game-winner, as that put the Eagles ahead 21-14.

“We talk about it. I look at him, and I’m like, I’m trusting you with this right here. You’re going to beat the guy, and I’m going to give you the ball,” he said to him before the big play to take the lead. “He’s a playmaker, so it makes it easy.”

The defense held for the remaining nine minutes of the game and ended the night with a sack on Antigo on fourth down as the game clock was expiring.

The Eagles moved to 1-0 on the season and will travel to play Adams-Friendship this Friday, Aug. 29, at 7 p.m. Due to an early deadline for Labor Day, a story on this game and the Friday, Sept. 5 game against Manawa, will be in the Sept. 10 issue of the News-Review. A story will be put online for the game against Adams-Friendship this weekend.