Louie St. George III
Moments after a 14-12 loss to Eveleth-Gilbert on Friday, Duluth Marshall football players could be seen stretching scrupulously on their home field as the sun set on a crisp late-summer evening.
Proper conditioning and staying limber are paramount for the Hilltoppers, who dressed just 21 players Friday. That’s a challenging number for a Nine-Man team, let alone a Class AAA club that has undergone a resurgence under third-year coach Jim Hogan.
“I tell them they’re warriors and they’re just going to have to battle,” Hogan said after Marshall (2-1 overall, 0-1 Great Polar White Division) dropped its first game of the season. “We can’t make excuses. There are other small schools - maybe not in 3A - that are in the same boat.”
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That boat remains above water for Hogan and the Hilltoppers, thanks in part to players like Jeremy Stephan and Cullen Mudrak, who scored the team’s touchdowns Friday. Like many of their teammates, Stephan and Mudrak hardly got a breather.
“Some guys don’t even come off the field,” Stephan said, noting that about eight or nine players play on both sides of the ball. Many also are on special teams.
Stephan, a senior, said coaches often have to “pad up” in practice to make sure there are enough bodies. Either that, or middle-school players are summoned to stand in and give the Hilltoppers “a look.” Such is life for a team whose entire roster is a humble 23 players. There were 39 on last year’s 7-3 team, Marshall’s second consecutive season above .500 after years of habitual losing.
Stephan’s 58-yard rumble, which featured some fancy footwork as he approached the goal line, early in the second quarter put the home team in front 6-0.
It was an 18-yard run from Mudrak, a junior, 10 seconds into the fourth quarter that restored Marshall’s lead at 12-6. But the Hilltoppers struggled to find an answer for Sam Roberts, who threw a second-quarter touchdown pass before answering Mudrak’s score with a 5-yarder of his own. Roberts’ ensuing pass to Austin Erickson for the two-point conversion gave the Golden Bears (2-1) the lead for good - though they certainly tried to give it away.
Eveleth-Gilbert’s second fumble of the fourth quarter came with 15.6 seconds left and the Golden Bears needing merely to take a knee. Instead they ran the ball, and their third turnover gave Marshall one last gasp, but a 36-yard field goal try from Jordan Fralich was well short.
“We made the plays when we needed to make the plays,” said Eveleth-Gilbert coach Wayne Roberts, Sam’s father. “Our defense stepped up in some pretty tough situations there at the end of the game, and I’m proud of them.”
The Golden Bears arrived Friday later than they would have liked after their bus was tardy picking them up by about 30 minutes.
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“That got us a little off-kilter,” said Sam Roberts, who rushed for 84 yards. “It took us a while to get going, but obviously we did.”
Eveleth-Gilbert was coming off a 35-14 defeat to Two Harbors.
Marshall, meanwhile, blanked Ogilvie 34-0 a week ago. Another stout showing by the defense kept the Hilltoppers in Friday’s game, and that’s all Hogan can ask for.
“Even though it was a tough loss - and give credit to Eveleth - but (we) were in that game until the last play,” the coach said. “I think these kids will battle every game we have this year. Every team we play is going to have to be prepared for a hard-fought game against us.”
Eveleth-Gilbert.............. 0-6-0-8-14
Duluth Marshall............ 0-6-0-6-12
DM - Jeremy Stephan 58 run (kick failed)
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EG - Austin Erickson 6 pass from Sam Roberts (pass failed)
DM - Cullen Mudrak 18 run (pass failed)
EG - Roberts 5 run (Erickson pass from Roberts)
