Mineral Point vs Lake Mills Game Recap

Now that I have finally regained the feeling in my fingers I wanted to sit down and write up a quick recap of the showdown between Mineral Point and Lake Mills. The cold temperatures seemed to have no effect on the game as points were plentiful for both sides as the game ended in a Mineral Point 44-36 victory! This was the premier matchup of the week in Wisconsin and it lived up to every bit of the hype. It was also impressive to see how many players on both teams played both ways. The conditioning of these two teams was impressive because as the game went on they both got better despite several key players never leaving the field! From the opening kickoff there was fireworks. [player_tooltip player_id="31343" first="Dominik" last="McVay"] took that opening kickoff 94 yards for a Mineral Point touchdown to jump out to an early 7-0 lead. You are going to see McVay’s name a lot in this recap and in articles recapping this week’s top performances as he had a night for the books. For the rest of the quarter it turned into more of a defensive battle. Neither team could find a rhythm on offense. Lake Mills got close as [player_tooltip player_id="30837" first="Adam" last="Moen"] drove the offense down inside the 20, but that drive stalled and ended with a missed field goal. The second quarter started the same way that the first ended. The offenses were still trying to get a groove going. Mineral Point especially because they had barely been on the field after scoring on the kickoff return. The Lake Mills offense started clicking by mid second quarter though. QB [player_tooltip player_id="30837" first="Adam" last="Moen"] took a deep drop as he set up a screen pass to RB Charlie Cassady. Cassady took the pass and weaved his way through the Mineral Point defense for a long TD to tie the game at 7 apiece. Mineral Point wasted no time regaining the lead. On the kickoff, for the second time in as many tries, [player_tooltip player_id="31343" first="Dominik" last="McVay"] returned the kickoff for a TD. This time he received a handoff on a reverse and streaked down the sideline to give Point the 14-7 lead. However, you will notice as this recap goes on that Lake Mills refused to go quietly. Soon after the return TD Lake Mills kept their high flying offense going as QB [player_tooltip player_id="30837" first="Adam" last="Moen"] found WR Charlie Bender on the corner route. Bender raced down the sideline and was brought down at the 2 yard line. A few plays later Moen found WR Jaxson Retrum on the quick slant to tie the game at 14 all! After a squib kick to prevent Dominik from having a chance at a third return, Mineral Point finally got their offense clicking. QB [player_tooltip player_id="30981" first="Liam" last="Stumpf"] started to put together some nice passes and runs, and while Mills was able to avoid Dominik on the kickoff they couldn’t contain him when he was on offense as McVay took the jet sweep for TD just before the halftime whistle! At halftime Mineral Point led 20-14 after they missed the extra point on the third TD of the half. The second half is where the fireworks went off and the points started to pile up for both sides! However, the first big play of the half was on defense as RB/LB [player_tooltip player_id="30818" first="Will" last="Straka"] picked off Moen to keep the momentum in their favor. Point capitalized on the turnover when QB [player_tooltip player_id="30981" first="Liam" last="Stumpf"] found Joah Filardo. Joah broke a tackle and ran it in for six! After the score they added two more on the conversion putting the game at Point: 28 Lake Mills: 14. Lake Mills wasn’t done fighting though. They came right back on their next drive led by the hard running of RB Charlie Cassady. Slowly but surely both offenses started to find success running to the outside and that is how Charlie moved Lake Mills down to the goal line where [player_tooltip player_id="30837" first="Adam" last="Moen"] kept it on the read option and punched it in for six! That brought us to the end of the third quarter with the score Mineral Point: 28 Lake Mills: 21. I had a feeling we were going to be in for an exciting finish based off how much the momentum was swinging back and forth between these teams. The offensive lines had started to have success opening up running lanes on the outside and both QBs were receiving tons of time to pass the ball. I did not expect for the two teams to go off as much as they did in the final quarter though. I also didn’t expect the first high impact play to be a beautiful rugby style punt from Mineral Point that rolled dead perfectly at the one yard line. On the very next play, Moen found his receiver on a quick bubble screen, but the receiver fell while still in the endzone resulting in a safety and a now 30-21 lead for Mineral Point. It looked like the flood gates were going to open on Lake Mills when they were forced to punt it away on their next drive because Mineral Point drove right down the field and RB/LB [player_tooltip player_id="30818" first="Will" last="Straka"] finally was able to break through on an inside run and score a TD to move the score to 36-21 Mineral Point after another missed extra point. Those flood gates did open, but they were opened on Mineral Point instead of Lake Mills. With 3:59 remaining in the fourth quarter Lake Mills QB [player_tooltip player_id="30837" first="Adam" last="Moen"] found his most reliable receiver in Jaxson Retrum for their second TD connection of the day on a deep pass over the middle! This put the score at Point: 36 Lake Mills: 28. Following that drive Lake Mills stepped up on defense and forced a punt to give Mills a chance to go down and tie the game. With 2:27 left QB Moen found WR Retrum again for a huge gain and a few plays later Moen took the snap and powered his way for a touchdown! The work wasn’t done though for that drive as they trailed 36-34. So, Lake Mills went for the two point conversion. When you need a big play you rely on your playmakers. That is what Lake Mills did as Moen found Retrum again on the slant to tie the game at 36 with 1:35 remaining in the game! Mineral Point wasn’t going to just go out and play for OT on their last drive, however. At the start of their drive QB Stumpf found stud RB/WR [player_tooltip player_id="31343" first="Dominik" last="McVay"] on a huge pass over the middle to get them into enemy territory. A couple plays later Stumpf again found McVay on a quick pass to get McVay in space where he was able to make a man miss and gain about 17 yards. On the next play [player_tooltip player_id="30818" first="Will" last="Straka"] took the handoff and bulldozed his way to a nearly 10 yard gain that ended at the six yard line. With :22 seconds left in the game Mineral Point again called Straka’s number and he responded by lowering his shoulder and driving through defenders on his way to the game winning touchdown with only :17 seconds left on the clock! They added a two point conversion to further their odds of pulling off the victory. After a few Lake Mills deep attempts were knocked down Mineral Point was able to secure the 44-36 victory over Lake Mills! This was such an exciting game to be at! The star players that I expected to dominate did just that and there were even a few players I didn’t know about pregame that had huge impacts on the outcome of the game. I will go into who each of those players are in my next couple articles where I will break down the best offensive and defensive players from this game including some beasts in the trenches on both sides! Make sure to tune back in for those articles!