“This win feels amazing! I’m so happy for the kids, we battled adversity all night and when the bad things happened we pushed right through,” Alpena coach Eric Mitchell said.

With three minutes left in the game, Alpena quarterback Jake Zann completed two passes for 40 yards and finished the drive with a rushing touchdown on the quarterback sneak to give Alpena an 18-16.

Marquette drove down to the 40-yard line on the ensuing drive, but were then forced to go for it on fourth down. Alpena’s Joe Sheridan got to Marquette’s quarterback and sacked him, securing the win for the Wildcats.

The first quarter started and finished slow for both teams as neither of them put points up on the scoreboard. Alpena’s defense came out very strong to start after Nic Geister and Sheridan both recorded two tackles for loss on Marquette’s first drive.

News Photo by James Andersen Alpena's Brady Pagels tries to evade a Marquette defender after making a catch. A late touchdown gave Alpena an 18-16 win over the Redmen.

Alpena started with the ball to begin the second quarter and finally found the end zone.

After converting three straight first downs, the Wildcats had all the momentum to score. Kaleb Donajkowski broke off a 25-yard rushing touchdown to give the Wildcats their first lead and the first touchdown of the season and a 6-0 lead.

The Wildcats’ defense continued to dominate until the two-minute mark when Marquette’s Peter Closner caught a seven-yard touchdown pass and Marquette added an extra point to take a 7-6 lead.

With under two minutes to go in the first half, Brady Niedzwiecki led the Wildcats’ drive after catching a 34-yard pass and then finished the drive up by catching a 25-yard touchdown right over the defending cornerback.

Alpena failed on the two-point conversion attempt but still had a 12-7 lead.

Marquette bounced back before halftime, driving down the field and kicking a field goal.

The Wildcats led at halftime 12-10.

The Redmen got the ball after halftime and were not going to let that opportunity go to waste. Closner got into the endzone for a touchdown again, giving Marquette a 16-12 lead.

Brady Pagels had a phenomenal second half that started with an interception giving the Wildcats the ball back and another chance to score. On offense, Pagels caught three passes all resulting in first downs with a massive gain of 36 yards on one of them.

Zann was 21-of-31 for 271 yards with a passing and rushing touchdown. Pagels had 10 receptions for 130 yards and Niedzwiecki had five receptions for 93 yards.

“We did a great job of taking what they were giving us. Jake (Zann) obviously had a phenomenal game, but we really improved on what we needed to focus on after last week,” Mitchell said.

Alpena plays Whitehall away next Friday.