Alpena’s struggles remain in lopsided defeat against Traverse City West | Information, Sports activities, Jobs

News photo by Jonny Zawacki Alpena quarterback Ryan Voltz (2) is pressured during a Big North Conference soccer game at Thirlby Field on Friday.

TRAVERSE CITY – If the meeting between Alpena and Traverse City West on Friday is their final meeting as conference opponents and the final meeting, the Wildcats will be glad the series is over.

West put an exclamation mark on the Big North Conference series, hiding Alpena, 40-0, at Thirlby Field.

Field position was a big factor as four of the Titans’ eight holdings began in the Alpena area and three of them resulted in touchdowns.

“Special teams really hurt us tonight. The field position was huge tonight because I thought we did a good job of limiting it early on and not allowing big games, but we did without special teams too much, ”said Alpena coach Eric Mitchell.

The Wildcats (0-5, 0-3 BNC) were closed and forced to a three and out on their inaugural possession.

Six games later, West opened the scoring with an eight-yard touchdown run by Michael Schermerhorn.

Despite the threesome and second possession, Alpenas Christian Wicklund brought back a fumble and gave the ball back to the Wildcats. Unfortunately the drive stalled and Alpena spun the ball deep into Titan’s territory

West led 7-0 after a quarter.

The wheels fell off in the second quarter when West found the end zone three times in three different ways: a 12-yard score from Schermerhorn, a 25-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Konchek to Garrett Schuler, and a pick-six from Cody Oaks . Alpena quarterback Ryan Voltz intercepted and went 54 yards the other way to give West a 27-0 halftime lead.

“We had chances early on to keep the game close. We were two scores behind at the start of the second and had a critical drive stall out and we didn’t manage to get a yard on a fourth and briefly in the second half and flipped the ball, then threw the pick Six and it was a quick game after that, ”said Mitchell. “They stacked the box against us and we knew we had to use the Poppass more in the second half and we succeeded there and we did a good job tonight to stop the sweep but we struggled the ball and running along with the field. ” Position, that hurt us tonight. “

West added two points in the third quarter: a seven-yard touchdown run by Reece Robertson and Konchek threw his second touchdown of the evening, this time to Parker Kirschner for the endgame of the game when West put a one to rest on-sided 25- years of conference rivalry with a 40-0 win.

Voltz finished the game 11-of-19 for 115 yards and one interception. Brady Niedzwiecki caught three passes for 53 yards and tight end Colt Gray took three passes for 21 yards.

The wildcats were kept on the ground to just 50 yards, allowing Konchek and Schermerhorn to roll them as the duo combined made up over 200 yards offensive and four touchdowns.

Alpena will be back next week, traveling to Gaylord for another conference.

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