MONTAGUE — Montague made a brief push in the second quarter of Tuesday's season opener against Hart, but the Pirates, playing with frenetic pace and physical effort on defense, proved too much for Montague in a 74-41 defeat.
The Wildcats trailed big early - the score was 28-6 after a quarter - but stormed back in the second quarter after adjusting to a breakneck pace of play coach Nick Thaler said the Pirates did not show when the teams scrimmaged over the summer.
"We played them in the summer, and it was not like that," Thaler said. "A lot of newer guys are playing some different roles for us and learning a lot of new things, and they punched us in the mouth early and set the tone for how they wanted the game to go. We'll play that way, but we just turned it over too many times."
Montague went on a 17-2 run to cut the Hart lead to seven points, capped by a layup from Cooper Bradley. Six different Wildcats contributed to the scoring run. However, the Pirates' Kolton Rockwell responded with a three-pointer that sparked Hart on a 12-0 run to end the first half - fueled by Montague giveaways.
"They came right back and turned us over, I think it was five times in a row at one point," Thaler said. "Then they're scoring off those turnovers, which is back-breaking. Those are turnovers for touchdowns, which we talked about. You just can't give a team like that - a veteran team that's very good - those opportunities."
The Wildcats were unable to sustain a threat to Hart in the second half, despite Cole Moss contributing eight of his team-leading 10 points in the half.
In addition to their style of play, the Pirates threw a lot of physical challenges at Montague, including a backcourt that boasts more height and length than the Wildcats are used to seeing. The team's veteran experience at the guard positions was a factor as well, as the Pirates are able to match or even exceed Montague in that department.
"They've got a veteran team, a lot of seniors on that team," Thaler said. "Those guys have been playing together for a while. We knew coming in that it was going to be a challenge...Hart's a team that's going to win a lot of games. If they were in our conference this year, they'd be right near the top, no doubt in my mind."
The defeat gave Montague a clear look at some of the areas it needs to work on in order to improve later in the season, and that's just fine with Thaler.
"It's better that we have a game like this to start, so there's an improvement piece that we can build on, versus (if our outcome) was on the other end of the spectrum and we're riding high, thinking that we've got nothing to work on," Thaler said. "This part of the season, I would think everyone's got something that they want to work on. That's the approach that we're going to take.
"We've got another game on Friday, a conference game with Manistee, which will be another tough test. Our guys will be ready to go, and hopefully from this, they learn how they have to start out the game."
In addition to Moss' 10 points, Cole Herremans scored eight points and Noah Raeth added seven, all in the first half.
