But its effects linger in the oddest corners — like high school football.

Marquette Senior High School head football coach Eric Mason was pleased with his team’s 21-13 homecoming victory over Escanaba.

Athletic director Alex Tiseo was also pleased to see a large crowd on hand for all the school’s special activities come to a head at Friday night’s game.

But Mason said he has a young team, and not just because a lot of top-notch players graduated last year.

Marquette's Wyatt Lakenen, left, secures the catch for an interception after this pass was bobbled by Escanaba's Ben Johnson, right, in the third quarter of their high school football game played at William R. Hart Stadium in Marquette on Friday. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

“We have 12 seniors this year, but only six who have played the full four years in our program,” Mason said. “The other six, and some other players too, have never played football before this year.

“It can be hard at times nowadays getting guys to come out for football, but since the pandemic, some guys never came back.

“So I spent time ‘recruiting’ in the off-season to get some more players on our team.”

A count of the roster handed out with the program on Friday night showed 37 players on the Redmen roster.

“We’ve been really up and down all season,” Mason said. “It’s because we graduated 25 guys from last year and only have two guys back who saw quality time last year. Our offensive line, for example, are all new players.

“So we’re really young, even where we aren’t actually young, as we’re inexperienced. But I would say this team is as athletic as any team I’ve seen this season,” he added, including the downstate teams he’s seen on their schedule that have significantly larger enrollments than Marquette.

“If we can ever put a full game together, we have the capability of surprising some people. There’s some good athletes here, but we’re not as good as a team yet.”

It shows in Marquette’s 2-4 record after Friday night’s victory, one that included the starting debut of sophomore quarterback Jaxon Jurmu.

“It was nice to win this one, it’s homecoming,” Jurmu said right after the game. “We came out ready to play.”

He did play quite a bit in the Redmen’s previous game, a 48-21 loss to the Upper Peninsula’s No. 1 team, Gladstone, after original starting QB Jack Quinnell went out with an injury.

On this night against the one-win Eskymos, he finished with 138 yards on 14 of 20 passing and one interception but also throwing for all three of his team’s touchdowns — 11 and 14 yards in the first quarter to 6-foot-4 Peter Closner and 23 yards to Nate Benninger in the fourth quarter that helped seal the result.

He didn’t run often, but he did scramble several times to avoid Esky’s pass rush while also gaining 35 yards the first time he tucked the ball and ran for a first down.

“He played well and really showed some of his athletic ability,” Mason said about Jurmu, who had seen more playing time at cornerback earlier this season.

The coach likes the idea of making Closner a key pass target.

“He’s probably the best prospect for the next level that we’ve had since I’ve been here (as head coach),” Mason said. “He’s a big kid but still moves well.”

Closner was one of five targets Jurmu hit with his passes. Closner made five catches for 46 yards, while Benninger also made five receptions for 47 yards. Wyatt Lakenen, Jacob MacPhee and Jan van den Ende each made one or two caches, too, including one by Lakenen for 35 yards in the first half.

For Escanaba, first-year head coach Bailey Lamb was the most displeased with his team’s execution.

“I thought our guys worked hard and I also thought we were the more physical team and had more energy,” Lamb said. “But we just made some mistakes, turning the ball over at critical times, and that cost us.”

The Eskymos were forced to play from behind all evening after Lakenen received the opening kickoff and returned it to the Marquette 42-yard line. It took MSHS eight plays and 3 1/2 minutes for Jurmu to make his first TD throw to Closner in the right corner of the end zone.

With both teams playing almost entirely with shotgun snaps, Esky’s plays would tend to blow up when the snap was high to QB Casey Bray.

On the Eskymos’ first possession, Bray converted a 4th-and-1 at midfield, but after two incompletions and a 4-yard loss on a fumbled handoff, Escanaba couldn’t convert on 4th-and-14, gaining 13 yards on a pass to Trent Lawson on the right sideline.

Jurmu again marched his team from almost the exact same spot for another TD, this time overcoming a holding penalty and the resulting 2nd-and-19 when the QB ripped off his 35-yard run down the left sideline.

His scoring aerial to Closner, this time thrown a few yards shy of the goal line, allowed the receiver to display a nifty move or two to reach paydirt and made it 14-0 with 2 1/2 minutes left in the opening quarter.

That would be all the scoring until the final minute of the first half as defenses stiffened with the help of a few mistakes.

The Eskymos moved the ball just barely into Marquette territory when they turned it over on downs again.

Then the Redmen marched deep into Esky territory before a completed pass was fumbled away inside the EHS 5 and recovered by Escanaba’s Tom Neumann.

By game’s end, the turnover battle played out even at two apiece.

Two more possessions came up empty — one was an Esky punt, the other a 28-yard field goal try by Quinnell that sailed left.

Escanaba got the ball back on its 20 with 5:17 left in the half, and despite plodding downfield mostly on the ground, Mason twice had to call timeout to reorganize his defense as the Eskymos earned three first downs in a span of five plays.

The second timeout seemed to work as Esky faced 4th-and-6 at the Marquette 35 with barely two minutes left.

But Bray completed an 11-yard pass to Lawson and took timeout with 1:34 to go. Three more runs in a hurry-up offense brought the ball to the 10, and after a timeout by each team, Bray completed a 10-yard scoring throw to Kaiden Brown with 27 seconds left to get Esky back within 14-7 at halftime.

The Redmen’s bend-but-don’t-break defense showed itself again to start the second half. Esky took the opening kickoff and marched downfield, gaining 47 yards in eight plays before encountering 4th-and-2 at the MSHS 26.

On a high snap, Bray rolled out while running for his life and barely got off a pass that was nowhere near a receiver to end another EHS drive.

More conventional punts ended the next three possessions and got the teams into the final quarter.

Then things got interesting again, just like in the opening quarter. On Escanaba’s first play after a Marquette punt, Bray’s pitch left was bobbled, fumbled and then

recovered by van den Ende deep in EHS territory at the 13.

MSHS immediately attacked. On the first play, Jurmu threw a pass to Lakenen in the end zone for a TD, but the play was called back for holding that made it 1st-and-25.

Following a modest 5-yard gain by Benninger to make it 2nd-and-20, Jurmu zinged a pinpoint pass to the corner of the end zone and just past the outstretched hands of Esky defender Brown and into the hands of Benninger for a 23-yard score. With Quinnell’s extra-point kick, his third on three tries, the Redmen led 21-7 with 10:32 left.

If that wasn’t bad enough for Escanaba, the visitors had the ball for two plays on their ensuing possession when Lakenen stepped in to intercept a Bray pass after it was bobbled along the left sideline.

On the first play, the Redmen caught a break when Jurmu threw a long pass into double coverage, but Closner was able to use his long frame to knock the ball away and harmlessly to the ground.

Instead, Jurmu led his troops inside the Esky 10 before making another ill-advised throw at the goal line that EHS’ Lukas Weaver scooped nearly off the ground for an interception and touchback.

Escanaba still had two scores to make up, however, and 7:30 left to do it in.

Again on the first play, Bray threw a short screen to Brown, who deked and juked his way for 58 yards to the MSHS 22. Three plays and less than two minutes later, Johnson broke several tackles and scampered in for a 7-yard TD. With the missed extra point by Julian Cashen, Marquette kept an eight-point lead.

Mason was content to mostly keep the ball on the ground, but Esky had to help the Redmen when, from near midfield, Marquette lined up in formation for what seemed forever as the play clock wound down on 4th-and-4. One EHS defender got antsy and jumped offside to give the home team a first down “freebie.”

Four plays later came another fourth down, but with only one yard to go, Jurmu kept it and gained two yards to all but end it.

Marquette finished with a 322-281 advantage in total yards as Tucker Welch and Benninger each had more than 50 yards rushing, Welch leading the way with 67.

Johnson actually had more rushing yards than his team, 147 to 138, while Bray was 10 of 22 passing for 143 yards with one pickoff.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

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