Despite playing in front of a homecoming crowd on Friday at Wildcat Stadium, the Alpena football team was unable to come up with big stops when it needed to and fell to Petoskey by a final score of 34-20.

“We battled all night, but again there is just small things that make a big difference for us. I told the guys I love them and it’s just a matter of taking care of our small things and we know what those are. Once we correct those things it’s really going to turn the page for us,” Alpena coach Aaron Sims said.

Petoskey came into the game without a win and looked nothing like a winless team. The Northmen came out with a different look offensively and were effective. Petoskey, known for its tight Wing-T formation, similar to Alpena, gave the Wildcats’ defense a variety of looks and was able to dominate the time of possession in the early stages of the game.

The Northmen opened the scoring six minutes into the first quarter as they marched down down the field and capped off a lengthy drive with a five-yard plunge from running back Jaylin Mitchell who scored his first of four touchdowns in the game and gave his team a 7-0 lead.

Alpena responded two plays later as Tim Taylor took a handoff from quarterback Lars MacArthur and broke free for a 61-yard touchdown to help the Wildcats even the score.

Petoskey added another score with two minutes remaining in the quarter on a three-yard score from Mitchell to regain its seven point lead.

The Northmen controlled the ball for nearly the entire quarter as Alpena spent under two minutes on the offensive side of the ball.

The trend would continue as Petoskey continued to wear the Wildcats’ defense down as they again held the ball for much of the second quarter as Northmen quarterback Joel Wilson picked apart Alpena’s zone defense most of the night and especially on third and fourth downs as Petoskey ran 42 plays to Alpena’s nine in the first half.

The Northmen added another score with 2:33 left in the half when again, Mitchell found pay dirt from three yards out and Petoskey went into the break leading by a score of 20-7.

“We just have to get off blocks faster. I told the kids at half that we needed to do a better job constricting their plays no matter what they are running,” Sims said.

The two teams opened the half and exchanged turnovers on their first drives as MacArthur was picked off by Jordan Bur who returned the ball down to the Alpena 10 yard line, but Petoskey couldn’t capitalize as Wilson tossed an interception of his own as Alex Arch picked off a pass on fourth down.

The Wildcats were able to get themselves some much needed momentum after the interception as Logan Guthrie ripped off a 51-yard touchdown to bring Alpena within six points.

The momentum quickly went away as the Northmen answered back with a 66-yard touchdown pass from Wilson to his receiver Lucas Muller to get its lead back up to 13.

Alpena continued to rip off big plays and keep itself in the game as just over a minute later, Taylor found some open space up the middle of the field and scored a 60-yard touchdown to claw back within seven.

It would be the closest the Wildcats would get the rest of the night as the Northmen scored the final touchdown of the game early in the fourth quarter when Mitchell again reach the end zone, this time from four yards out.

Mitchell was the workhorse for Petoskey as he carried the ball 36 times for 120 yards to go with his four scores. Wilson had a solid night under center, going 10-15 for 217 passing yards with a touchdown and an interception.

The Wildcats were led by Taylor who made the most of his seven carries, rushing for 155 yards and find the end zone twice. Guthrie added nine carries for 107 yards and a touchdown.

Alpena falls to 2-6 with the loss and are 0-4 in Big North Conference play. The Wildcats will look to snap their current five game losing streak in their season finale at Gaylord next Friday.

“I want to see us play with fanatical effort and take care of the little things in our final game of the year,” Sims said.

Jonny Zawacki can be reached via email at jzawacki@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5690.