Voltz to start at quarterback for banged up Wildcats against Cadillac
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ALPENA — The Alpena High football team enters Week 4 shorthanded.
Not only did the Wildcats suffer a loss on the scoreboard in last week’s Big North Conference opener at Petoskey, sophomore quarterback Jake Zann suffered a broken collarbone late in the game and could miss the remainder of the season.
Zann showed promise as Alpena’s signal caller through the first three games, throwing for over 400 yards and a pair of scores in three games.
Along with Zann, the Wildcats lost junior Brady Pagels to a season-ending injury in the season opener. Pagels started the first game of the season as one of Alpena’s wide receivers and also showed promise, catching a pair of passes from Zann. Pagels was also listed as the Wildcats’ backup quarterback.
With both signal callers out, Alpena will turn to senior Ryan Voltz who is familiar with the position, having quarterbacked the Wildcats during his sophomore and junior years.
Voltz had offseason shoulder surgery and was relied on to play a pivotal role defensively and at a wide receiver and tight end position.
“We’re lucky. We’re in a fortunate situation where we’ve lost two quarterbacks, but our third option has 16 starts under his belt,” Alpena coach Eric Mitchell said. “It’s huge to have somebody with experience that knows the offense and knows what we want to run and what we want to do and we’re going to give Ryan (Voltz) the option to make adjustments at the line. We’re on the same page and we’re fully confident in Ryan.”
Voltz started under center in last year’s opener against Cadillac, but was outdueled by Viking quarterback Aden Gurden, who accounted for 173 yards rushing and four touchdowns.
A year later, both quarterbacks will once again be under center as two teams with different goals and expectations meet tonight on Park Family Field at Wildcat Stadium.
Cadillac is coming off of a dream season in which it came up just short in the Division 4 state championship game, falling 13-0 to Detroit Country Day.
This season, the Vikings are 2-1 after falling to Traverse City West, 21-7, last week.
This week, Cadillac looks to get back on track against the reeling Wildcats. Alpena is 0-3 to begin a season for the 20th time in school history and is in the midst of an 11-game losing streak.
Snapping that streak tonight will be no easy task against a more experienced Gurden and talented Cadillac team.
“We’re definitely not 100 percent, but we’re trying to figure things out. We know what Cadillac returns from a season ago and we know they do a great job getting off the ball. For us, we know this is going to be another physical game and I think if we play the way we did in the second half last week, we’ll be just fine,” Mitchell said. “We have to play all four quarters and know that it’s going to be a battle. We know (Aden) Gurden is good and he ran all over us last year and they have some other returners that are talented. We’re going to be physical and do everything we can to make things difficult for them.”
Despite the loss last week, the Wildcats showed a lot of grit and heart.
Alpena opened the scoring with a touchdown pass on fourth down from Zann to Luke Young on its first drive of the game a week ago. Unfortunately, the Wildcats had no answer for Petoskey’s duo of Rippin Vining and Gavin Wargel, who toasted the Alpena defense with over 300 yards on the ground.
Alpena trailed by three scores at the half, but played inspired and physical in the second half, allowing just seven points.
That is the kind of effort the Wildcats will need tonight if they hope to upset Cadillac at home.
“We know we have to play all four quarters this week and we have to play as physical as we did in the second half last week,” Mitchell said. “If we do not bring our ‘A’ game in terms of physicality, it’s going to be a long night for us.”