Mott-Regent dominates Parshall-WS for 48-20 victory at BAC

• Taylor Zentner

Press Photo by Dustin Monke Mott-Regent senior quarterback Taylor Zentner, back, brushes off Parshall-White Shield senior defensive lineman Luke Hartman while getting a block from his younger brother, junior Tyler Zentner, left, on Saturday morning during a 9-man, Region 4 football game at the Badlands Activities Center.

Talk about it

Mott-Regent knows its success this season will rest on the shoulders of senior running backs Jacob Greff and Logan Haberstroh, and brothers Taylor and Tyler Zentner.

“We we’re hoping, going into the season, that that was going to be the case,” Mott-Regent head coach Ron Benson said.

So far, so good.

The running backs combined for 145 yards and three touchdowns and senior quarterback Taylor Zentner threw three touchdown passes — two of them to junior receiver Tyler Zentner, who also had an interception return for a touchdown — as the Wildfire got ahead early and cruised to a 48-20 victory over Parshall-White Shield on Saturday in a 9-man, Region 4 football game at the Badlands Activities Center.

“We were ready for this game,” said Greff, who rushed for 70 yards and two touchdowns while leading Mott-Regent with 12 tackles. “We came out, we were excited for this game. We were hitting 100 percent, we were running 100 percent and it was just a fun game. We came out well.”

The Wildfire had a two-touchdown lead before the Braves even knew what had hit them.

Greff and Haberstroh scored on TD runs of 23 and 24 yards, respectively, on one-play series’ in the first quarter. Mott-Regent’s cumulative time of possession on those two series: 11 seconds.

The Zentners then hooked up for their first scoring strike, a 17-yard TD that put Mott-Regent up 22-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Greff tacked on a 10-yard TD run to cap a nine-play, 89-yard drive midway through the second quarter.

The Zentner brothers capped the first-half scoring when Taylor found Tyler on a 44-yard eave to the end zone after time had expired in the second quarter. The two-point conversion gave Mott-Regent a 34-0 halftime lead.

Though the Wildfire had only 305 total yards, they outgained the Braves 259 to 28 in the first half.

“Our defense was just non-existent today,” Parshall-White Shield head coach Mark Grueniech said. “Mott did whatever they wanted to. That’s disappointing.”

The Wildfire weren’t done either.

Taylor Zentner capped another nine-play drive with a 4-yard TD pass to Noah Blickensderfer to open the third quarter. The quarterback finished 9 of 14 for 153 yards passing.

On the Braves’ ensuing drive, Tyler Zentner read a roll-out pass attempt by Parshall-White Shield sophomore quarterback Justin Roberts perfectly, made a one-handed interception and then raced 57 yards to the end zone for a touchdown that gave Mott-Regent a 48-0 lead with 1:42 left in the third quarter.

“I felt pretty good after that,” said Tyler Zentner, who also had four receptions for 100 yards and seven tackles. “I saw the pass play, read it, made the play that I could on it and did what I did out there.”

The Braves scored three unanswered touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters against what basically amounted to Mott-Regent’s backup defense.

Roberts broke free on a 47-yard TD run with 1:06 left in the third quarter on the first play following Tyler Zentner’s interception return.

Monte Good Bird had a 7-yard TD run with 7 minutes to play in the fourth quarter and Jade Moran broke free for a 31-yard TD score with 32 seconds remaining.

Moran had a game-high 136 yards rushing on 17 carries.

Parshall-White Shield had 254 total yards — all rushing — but only 28 came in the first half.

“We need a lot of improvement from our younger kids, for depth,” Benson said. “That’s going to be important. We’ve got all kinds of things we can do.”

MR 22 12 14 0 — 48

PWS 0 0 6 14 — 20

First quarter

MR–Jacob Greff 23 run (pass failed), 8:52

MR–Logan Haberstroh 24 run (Greff run), 6:35

MR–Tyler Zentner 17 pass from Taylor Zentner (Haberstroh run), 3:16

Second quarter

MR–Greff 10 run (run failed), 7:08

MR–Tyler Zentner 44 pass from Taylor Zentner (pass failed), :00

Third quarter

MR–Noah Blickensderfer 4 pass from Taylor Zentner (Benjamin Friedt pass from Taylor Zentner), 6:38

MR–Tyler Zentner 57 interception return (run failed), 1:42

PWS–Justin Roberts 47 run (run failed), 1:06

Fourth quarter

PWS–Monte Good Bird 7 run (Jeff Hall run), 7:00

PWS–Jade Moran 31 run (pass failed), :31.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: MR, Haberstroh 8-75, Greff 8-70, Friedt 2-11, Brett Messmer 1-3, Tyler Zentner 1-(minus-7). PWS, Moran 17-136, Roberts 8-67, Hall 3-14, Dean Foote 6-15, Frankie Wilkinson 2-13, Monte Good Bird 2-9, Luke Hartman 1-2.

PASSING: MR, Taylor Zentner 9-14-0 153, Tyler Zentner 0-2-0 0. PWS, Roberts 0-1-1 0, Moran 0-1-0 0.

RECEIVING: MR, Tyler Zentner 4-100, Friedt 1-14, Greff 1-13, Jonah Honeyman 1-11, Blickensderfer 1-4. PWS, none.

Tags: mott-regent wildfire, parshall braves, high school football, sports, preps, football, updates