News File Photo Alpena running back Kadyn Budnick (32) carries the ball during a Week 2 football game against Cheboygan in Alpena's home opener on Park Family Field at Wildcat Stadium.

ALPENA — After another frustrating and disappointing defeat last week in its home opener, the Alpena High football team doesn’t have time to dwell on its current 10-game losing streak.

Instead, the Wildcats (0-2) must try to find a way to figure out how to win as Big North Conference play opens.

Alpena travels to Petoskey (2-0) with an upset in mind as the two sides open BNC play.

For a quarter and a half last week against Cheboygan, the Wildcats looked like they were going to finally break through for a much-needed win.

Unfortunately, a scoring drive to end the first half and a second half that was controlled by the Chiefs doomed Alpena. The Wildcats fell 28-18 despite holding a 12-0 lead though a quarter and a half.

The schedule does Alpena no favors as the Wildcats travel to take on a red-hot Northmen team that is averaging over 40 points per game to begin the 2021 campaign and has beaten Cheboygan and Escanaba.

Petoskey is no stranger to success when playing the Wildcats. Petoskey has won 13 of the last 14 meetings and has been explosive under first-year head coach Rick Winbigler.

Petoskey’s coach made some changes to the traditional tight Wing-T offense that has given the Wildcats’ defense fits in years past. The Northmen have been even more explosive through two games, scoring 82 points in a pair of wins to begin the season, nearly matching their total in seven games a year ago.

Alpena will need to key heavily on senior running back Ripping Vining, who is coming off a week where he put the Northmen on his back — rushing for over 200 yards and scoring four touchdowns in Petoskey’s 44-27 win over Escanaba.

Vining isn’t the only playmaker the Wildcats will need to focus much of their attention on. Quarterback Gavin Wargel had a four-touchdown effort of his own in the opener against Cheboygan while adding over 130 yards on the ground.

If the first two weeks are any indication of what tonight might feature, it could spell disaster for a Wildcats team that has given up nearly 40 points per game the last two weeks.

“Our biggest thing is that we have to play assignment football. We know with his new offense that they have, we need to watch number six and seven. Their quarterback and running back are both very good and very athletic, so containing them will be huge,” Alpena coach Eric Mitchell said. “We think this is going to be a tough week, so we are preparing our defensive line and defensive backs to make sure that we don’t get baited down field so they have space to run. They’ve created space by spreading teams out the first two weeks so we have to close gaps and keep them from baiting us down field and creating space and running lanes.”

The Wildcats will need to find better success running the ball too. Despite holding a 12-point lead last week, Alpena only ran the ball 14 times and, other than three touchdowns on the ground from Kadyn Budnik, the Wildcats’ ball carriers were held in check.

Cheboygan made adjustments in the second half and limited sophomore quarterback Jake Zann; the second time in as many weeks that Alpena’s passing game was held in check in the second half.

A better mix of run and pass will be key for the Wildcats tonight if they hope to keep up with the new look and high-powered Northmen offense.

“It’s obvious, but we want to make sure that we control the football. We have to make sure we are helping our defense by moving the football down the field,” Mitchell said. “I think that they are vulnerable on defense. They are similar to us with key players going both ways. If we own the middle of the field, I think we’ll be just fine.”

Petoskey has been able to put points on the board, but the Northmen have allowed 27 points in each of their first two games.

Alpena wants to show it can finish drives and get the run game working if it stands any chance of keeping Petoskey’s offense off the field and leaving with a victory.

“We know we are at a point right now where we want to make Week 10 and there is still time for that, we have to play a lot better than what we have,” Mitchell said. “Starting conference play is obviously exciting. We have to rally together and when we get down, we have to battle through adversity. We have to keep our heads and we know we have no other choice now than to go out and play hard, play better and execute in every single area if we want to be successful and win.”