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Football: Willmar Cardinals' season ends at Marshall

joe brown, west central tribune, willmar, minn.
·5 min read

Oct. 28—MARSHALL — An injury on the first drive of the game wasn't going to slow down Marshall's attack.

With 230-pound fullback Gavin Schaefer dinged up, the Tigers utilized sophomore wingback Andrew Stelter. He rewarded second-seeded Marshall with three touchdowns in a 21-7 victory over third-seeded

Willmar Cardinals

in the Section 2AAAA semifinals Saturday at the Schwan Regional Event Center on the Southwest Minnesota State University campus.

"Andrew's been playing part time — he was hurt early in the year — and we got him going," said Tigers head coach Terry Bahlmann. "He stepped up huge, catching the ball and running the football for us."

Marshall will take on top-seeded Hutchinson for the section championship at 7 p.m. Friday in Hutchinson. Hutch beat fourth-seeded New Ulm 52-14 on Saturday.

After their Week 2 matchup — a 28-21 Marshall win over Willmar — the Tigers knew not to underestimate the two-win Cardinals.

"We knew they were a good team. Their record did not define how good they were," Stelter said. "They're a great team and we knew we had to come prepared and play our best."

On its second drive, Marshall marched down the field with an 11-play, 79-yard drive. It did that without Schaefer, who stuck to playing defense.

Luckily for the Tigers, Stelter was up for the task.

The 190-pound back punched in his first score on a reverse that went 13 yards for a touchdown. Ethan Hess followed that up with the extra point to make it 7-0 with 3 minutes, 4 seconds left in the first quarter.

"I just find the hole and run," Stelter said. "Find space and get to it and get into the end zone."

Willmar's next drive stalled and it was forced to punt. Or, it appeared that way.

After seeing Marshall's penchant for aggressive punt blocks both on tape and after their first drive, the Cardinals opted for the fake punt.

"They've put a lot of pressure on the punter and we figured we got to do something within the course of the game," said Willmar head coach Jon Konold. "After the first punt, coach (Steve) Grove called it when we lined up and they were doing the same thing. He called it and it was wide open."

Punter Cullen Gregory hit a wide-open Matthew Cayler up the seam for a first down. Cayler turned that into a 68-yard touchdown reception. A Carter Dirkes extra point tied it up at 7-all.

"I was throwing it no matter what," Gregory said. "Matthew had a fast run and got some good blocking at the end.

"It's fun to see Matthew score. Tied game, 7-7, that's where we wanted to be."

But, Stelter and the Tigers persisted. He got his second touchdown of the day with a 15-yard reception from Josh Kraft with 6:02 left before halftime.

Taking over as Marshall's signal-caller in the Week 2 game against Marshall, Kraft made key plays with his arm and legs on Saturday. He completed 7 of 13 passes for 150 yards and ran for another 35 yards.

"He's come really far this season throwing the ball and commanding the team," Stelter said of Kraft.

Early in the second half, Stelter notched his third score of the game on an eight-yard carry. He finished with 105 yards of total offense.

"Marshall's a good team and if you look in the backfield, you're going to be in the wrong spot," Gregory said of defending the Tigers' wing offense. "They got a good game plan. We had some big stops on them, but we let up some big plays. They're a good team and it's hard to defend that."

Marshall's defense held Willmar to 32 yards in the second half. The run game was also limited to 39 yards on 23 carries.

"The pressure looks that they gave us, that overwhelmed us," Konold said. "We hung in there but we couldn't sustain anything. Our defense gave us opportunities."

Two of the Tigers' three interceptions also came after the break. Jordan Ellingson was limited to 6 of 22 passing for 62 yards.

"We're not very big, but we're fast and we run to the ball," Bahlmann said of his defense. "We tried to move around and put pressure on their big linemen. Willmar's huge up front and we wanted to use our athletic ability and play in space more. We also wanted to give the young quarterback (Ellingson) some different looks than he's seen. He's a great player on film and a good runner, but we had to keep him in the pocket and put pressure on him the whole night."

For the second time in as many years, Willmar's season comes to an end at Marshall. The Cardinals finish 2-7.

"It's a great group of kids; the seniors have been great to coach the last four years," Konold said. "Their first year was the COVID year and they had a great season then. It's going to be tough to replace them and it's going to be tough to see them go. They didn't have success on the field like they wanted to or expected to this year, but those are some things you learn in life. The true character of these kids is they came back every week and got prepared and got ready to go. Just a great group of kids and they'll be great young men when they're off to college and in the workforce."