Wildcats looking to stifle Ridl, Marquette passing attack in opener
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ALPENA -- The Alpena football team won't have to wait long to test itself this season.
The Wildcats' season opener tonight pits them against Marquette, who's coming off a long playoff run and returns many of its starters from last year.
Game time is 7 p.m. in Marquette.
In their most recent meeting, Alpena defeated the Redmen, 28-25, in October 2019.
Alpena is looking to snap an eight-game losing streak, dating back to 2018, and will be looking for a win in its opener for the first time since that season.
Chief among Alpena's goals for Thursday is finding a way to stop -- or at least slow down -- Marquette's Austin Ridl, who helped the Redmen to a 7-2 record last year with a pair of postseason wins.
Marquette's senior signal caller returns for his third year under center and has shown plenty of ability to beat teams with his arm as well as his feet. Last year in a playoff win over Reeths-Puffer, Ridl accounted for three scores. Two weeks later, he threw for more than 300 yards and three touchdowns of at least 50 yards in a season-ending loss to Muskegon.
"We're expecting to see a lot of the quarterback. This kid is going to be a third-year starter, this is his senior year, he's a gunslinger, we know that he'll throw the ball. We know they want to attack us deep," Alpena coach Eric Mitchell said. "That's part of their game plan to make teams feel uncomfortable."
Ridl will be without big-play threat Kameron Karp, who's now at Northern Michigan University, but Marquette returns much of its supporting cast from last season as well as four linemen.
Alpena knows Marquette's pass-heavy attack may result in some big plays, but Mitchell said the key is making sure those big plays don't lead to touchdowns.
The Wildcats are hoping to counter that with big plays of their own, especially with an experienced and athletic group of receivers, two veteran running backs and an experienced offensive line to compliment Alpena's quarterbacks, Brady Pagels and Jake Zann.
"The emphasis for this week has been if we give up 30 or 40 yards on a play, but they don't score, I don't care," Mitchell said. "If we can keep the ball in front of us, we're going to be fine."