Montague football's defense records 6 takeaways in hard-nosed win over Ravenna

MONTAGUE — Montague's defense has played tough much of the year, but Friday night against Ravenna, the Wildcats took it to a new level.

Montague forced five turnovers on Ravenna's final six offensive possessions, plus a fumble recovery on a kickoff, to turn the game in its favor, hanging on for a 28-25 win that clinched the team's first winning regular season since 2021.

Caleb Schmidt had the sixth and last Wildcat turnover, picking off a pass by Ravenna quarterback Dylan May to halt a furious Bulldog comeback and preserve the win.

"Our defensive coaches made some really good halftime adjustments," Montague coach Phil Koops said. "We were going to bring pressure and get after (May) a little bit. Then we got some tipped balls. The coaches do a lot of work having kids catch footballs. Sometimes you have defensive players hear, 'Well, you play defense because you can't catch.' You've got to catch the ball and get turnovers. Our kids did a great job on defense tonight doing that."

The run of takeaways started with an acrobatic pick by Ethan Hansen late in the first half. The defensive lineman deflected a May pass into the air, then pulled it in to stop what was threatening to be a scoring drive with 1:15 to go before halftime. That enabled Montague to go into the half down only 17-7.

The Wildcats (5-4) then recovered a fumble on the second-half kickoff, and on the ensuing drive, called a very nice fake toss play to set up a short pass from Eli Petersen to Cooper Bradley for the conversion. It led to an eight-yard scoring run by Petersen.

"I've always liked going for it on fourth down," Koops said. "We were in fourth-and-4, I think, in the middle of the field. Let's roll the dice and go. We went with our boot pass, and it might be with Cole (Moss) motioning away. Cole is a big distraction. We got Cooper out in the flat, and he's a pretty smooth athlete."

Bradley made that play, but it was Moss who swung the game back towards his team early on when Ravenna was threatening to take command. Already up 14-0 after a pair of touchdown drives, the Bulldogs pinned Montague back to its own 11-yard line on a kickoff. However, that was just preamble to another huge play in a season full of them for Moss, who took a handoff and burst up the middle untouched for a score.

"He's a game-changer," Petersen said. "You want a big play, out of anybody on the team, give the ball to Cole."

With the 'Cats back in range, the defense made more things happen, recovering a fumbled snap on the next Ravenna drive - that led to a Petersen quarterback sneak for a score early in the fourth quarter to take a 21-17 lead - then picking off a tipped pass when Dylan Bailey was in the right place at the right time.

The 'Cats didn't score off that turnover, but they did off the next one, a pick by Kian Peters. Montague got to the one-yard line, and after two unsuccessful sneaks, ran a toss play to Bradley, who outran the defense to the corner of the end zone.

Ravenna didn't roll over, as May, who threw for three scores in the game, found Brody Anderson for the second time, on a fourth down no less, to get back within a possession.

Hearts might have entered throats when the Wildcats fumbled the ball to Ravenna in the final minute, but luckily, Schmidt was there for a pick a few plays later.

The win allows the 'Cats to go into the playoffs on a four-game win streak. Every team wants to be playing its best football going into the postseason, but Montague is a team that knows it's doing just that.

That's not just true on defense, but on offense as well. There have undoubtedly been growing pains installing the new option-based attack, but during the winning streak, the flashes of strong play that were seen earlier in the season are happening more often.

"You put a lot on the quarterback, not only to read players, to read defenders and make decisions, but also make pre-snap decisions, flipping plays or checking plays," Koops said of Petersen. "A lot of times I give Petey two plays and he gets us into the right play against that defense, based on what we've talked about during the week. Sometimes I think a few fans might go, 'Oh, Eli Petersen, we don't throw for a lot of yards,' but he does a lot of other things that help us function as an offense and win football games."

Petersen said hard work on the fundamentals of option football has helped him and his teammates get better on offense.

"We've just worked at all the small stuff really hard so we've got all the basics down, and it's been pretty easy to learn different variations and stuff after that," Petersen said. "I think it's come a long way since the beginning of the season."

With the playoffs approaching, Koops likes the way his team is playing and also how it matches up in Division 6. Tough tests no doubt await, but Montague is best at slowing down the run, and Koops doesn't see a lot of high-powered air attacks in the bracket. If the Wildcats play their best, they can have a chance to win a tough playoff game - and Friday's certainly was a good imitation of one.

"Knock on wood, I don't think we're gonna see someone that's airing it out in the D-6 playoff picture around us," Koops said. "We like the matchup against a run-heavy team. I think every football coach will tell you that we want to go on the road with a rushing offense and a good defense. That's our plan."