News Photo by James Andersen Alpena quarterback Jake Zann hands the ball off to running back Kaleb Donajkowski during the first quarter of a game on Friday against Escanaba at Park Family Field at Wildcat Stadium

ALPENA — The Alpena High football team had high hopes entering Senior Night and its final home game of the season, but Escanaba came to play.

The Wildcats were defeated 46-21 in a game that was dominated by the Eskymos, this pushes Alpena’s record to 1-7 on the season.

“The last few weeks we’ve gotten a lot better at little things that didn’t show tonight. We really failed in simplifying the game. We knew what was coming, we knew where to be, and we just didn’t come up to make those plays tonight,” Alpena coach Eric Mitchell said.

Before the game started, Alpena’s senior class was honored before the game. Mitchell said his senior class has meant a lot to the program.

“For this group of seniors, they work hard, they’ve done everything I’ve asked of them, and we’ve got some great leaders in this senior class,” Mitchell said.

Although Alpena ended up taking the loss, its first drive started off strong with several good runs from Kaleb Donajkowski. The drive eventually burnt out causing the Wildcats to punt.

It didn’t take long for Escanaba to put points up on the board. With 4:55 left in the first quarter, the Eskymos completed a 50-yard pass that was followed up by a four-yard rushing touchdown by Ben Johnson. The extra point was good, putting Escanaba up 7-0 early.

With two minutes left, Eskymos got the ball back and Johnson had tons of room to run. Johnson recorded a 62-yard rushing touchdown, giving Escanaba a 14-0 lead.

The Wildcat’s offense continued to struggle, which led to another Escanaba touchdown. This time it was a 64-yard rushing touchdown from Trent Lawson, extending the lead even further to 21-0.

Alpena finally caught a break on defense after Carter Stark secured an interception giving the Wildcats some momentum.

After forcing the turnover, Alpena got its first points from a four-yard touchdown by Brady Pagels. The Wildcats hit the extra point, cutting the score to 21-7.

The Wildcats’ defense continued to give up massive plays, which led to another Escanaba touchdown. This touchdown came with 3:55 left in the second quarter by Noah Gagne, which was followed by a successful two-point conversion attempt, increasing the lead to 29-7.

The Eskymos tacked on a few extra points before halftime with a last-second field goal to take a 32-7 lead.

The second half went better for the Wildcats and on its first drive, Pagels got into the end zone again for a 24-yard touchdown.

Alpena’s offense began to get it going, but the defense couldn’t stop Escanaba’s offense.

The Eskymos finished the game by scoring two final touchdowns to close out the game. The Wildcats also had one final touchdown, scored by Donajkowski ending the game with a final of 21-46.

“We were a much better football team than we were showing, two big plays killed us,” Mitchell said. “We were shooting ourselves in the foot on offense. I thought on every offensive series we had things going and something stalled it out.”

Alpena quarterback Jake Zann finished 8-of-21, 155 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions. Pagels was his leading receiver with eight receptions for 108 yards and two touchdowns. Donajowski led the team in rushing with 20 attempts for 144 yards and a touchdown.

Escanaba’s Casey Bray was 9 of 17 with 229 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. Johnson had 20 attempts for 205 yards and two touchdowns. Escanaba’s top receiver was Trent Lawson; he had four catches for 120 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Alpena plays at St. Johns in its season finale on Friday.