Bluejays look to rebound after tough conference loss

Following an opening day home victory two weeks ago against Florence when everything favored the Three Lakes-Phelps varsity football team, the same squad struggled to find rhythm last week losing to conference opponent, Phillips High School, 56-26 in front of another large crowd in Three Lakes. Offensively, the Bluejays had four touchdowns and had isolated standout performances, but they also gave up nearly five times the points from their first game.

The matchup with Phillips started evenly as both teams traded possessions without scoring through most of the first quarter. From that point through the third quarter, however, the Loggers were able to tally up 48 points with a heavy dose of power running, while the Jays put up 18 points. It all started with a simple exchange of touchdowns as the Loggers scored first, followed quickly by an 18-yard touchdown run by Jack Westfall of the Bluejays to bring the game to a 6-6 tie.

With just seconds left in the opening quarter, the Phillips quarterback threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to regain the lead, something that they ultimately held for the duration of the game. They added 14 unanswered points in the second quarter to take a 26-6 lead into the halftime break, and then scored again less than a minute into the third quarter. In total, the Bluejays allowed eight touchdowns and four additional 2-point conversions.

Pat George is the head coach of the Bluejays and said, despite the final score, he was encouraged by some aspects of what he saw, particularly in the second half when the Jays were already down by wide margins.
“We made some major corrections in the second half,” he said after the loss, “and the boys responded well. They played hard until the clock showed nothing but zeros, and that speaks volumes to me. We have things to work on, but the play I saw on the field is correctable, and we will learn and move forward,” he said. “I try to give the team things to build on. Such as the fact that we scored 20 points in the second half. You can build on that, but it is hard to build on mistakes. After watching film of the game, I could see the effort of our boys and I appreciated what they did. Congratulations to Phillips as they played a tough, physical game and bounced back from their own opening day tough loss. We will work hard to do the same.”

Statistically, the Bluejays performed well in many areas, including at the quarterback position where Sam Koshuta completed 18 of 27 passes for 181 yards and a touchdown. He also had 154 rushing yards, ran for a long 54-yard touchdown and made 11 total tackles.

“Sam worked hard for his team,” Coach George said, “and his fight and willingness to never quit exemplifies what we are trying to build here.”

Owen Liebscher had a solid night for the Bluejays with 118 receiving yards and two touchdowns, while running for 18 additional yards and scoring a 2-point conversion after his fourth-quarter touchdown.

Defensively, Liebscher was tied with Koshuta with 11 total tackles, and he had a pass deflection and a forced fumble to his credit. His six touchdowns in the first two games lead the team.

Other standout performances were by Westfall, who had an 18-yard TD run to tie the game early, and then added 21 yards of receiving and three solo tackles to his night. Zach Weavers also made significant contributions with two long punts, each more than 40 yards. According to George, “These punts were outstanding not only for their distance, but with hang time that minimizes return yardage.”

The offensive linemen were also high on the list of praise from the coach as Weavers, Bentley Bills and Logan Running worked against a strong line of Phillips defenders.

“Their work does not always show up on stat lines,” George said, “but it is important, and the boys did a great job.”

Bills was also dominant on the defensive side of the ball with a team-high nine solo tackles.

Garrett Mandli and Peter Cruckson each played a growing role as pass receivers with five combined catches for more than 40 yards, and Mandli added seven tackles while also recovering a fumble. Coach George said he was also happy with the performances of freshman players Rayden Anderson and Charles Olkowski, while sophomore Wyatt Gentile-Donner made his first solo tackle of the season.

The Bluejays will have their third consecutive home game this Thursday, September 3, hosting the Screaming Eagles of Chequamegon High School with a 7:00 p.m. game time.