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A little running, a little throwing and a lot of winning.
Sounds like a pretty good recipe for the Mineral Point football team to follow.
Friday the Pointers claimed a non-conference win over the Marshall Cardinals, a team that has put a solid team on the field for several years. It took a half to figure things out completely but when the Pointers did that they beat the Cardinals 28-15.
Isaac Lindsey scored twice, passing for 113 yards and ran for 74 more with both his touchdowns coming before the half which gave the Pointers a 14-9 lead at intermission.
Lindsey scored the first touchdown of the game on a 64 yard scamper and Cutis Cox's conversion made it 7-0. A safety later in the quarter gave Marshall two points.
Lindsey ran in from the km16 in the second quarter and Cox kicked the extra point to make it 14-2.
The Cardinals answered with a pass play, Josh Wehking to Brock Riege that spanned seven yards. A kick by Tristan Ruelas made it 14-9.
The Pointers opened it up in the third quarter with two scores. The first was a 27 yard strike Lindsey to Brandon Dolphin and the second a one yard plunge by Riley Workman. Cox kicked both extra points for a 28-9 lead.
The Cardinals tacked on six points in the final quarter on a pass play.
Lindsey set the tone via the passing game with five completions in eight attempts for 113 yards. He caught Mason Dailey open three times for 40 yards then hit Workman once for 46 and Brandon Dolphin once for the 27 yard touchdown.
"The passing game has been important for us all year," said coach Andy Palzkill. "It is nice to be able to run and throw as needed depending on what we see from opposing defenses. We are fortunate to have a variety of athletes who are contributing as receivers. Currently, we are rotating six or seven athletes at that position on Friday nights. Isaac continues to a good job of spreading the ball around and I felt like Mason Dailey really stood out during this game. We are getting good play from Caden Jackson, Kevin Eisenzimmer, Blaise Watters, Brandon Dolphin, and Liam Stumpf."
Palzkill said he feels Marshall gave the Pointers some different looks that will help as they resume SWAL play.
"Marshall is a very good program and they have a solid football team," Palzkill said. "It was the first option team we have seen this year so that was great for our defense to see veer and midline primarily. They were also able to pass the ball rather well and that was good for our defense to see as well."
"Defensively Marshall played a 43 cover 0 which is what I believe we will see a lot of as we go through the next four conference games," Palzkill said. "Marshall had good size in the defensive line and a very aggressive mike linebacker. We will see good defensive line play and linebacker play as we head into Iowa-Grant this week."
Besides Lindsey's stellar play the Pointers also got several other contributions.
"Joey Dolphin had an incredible game as a defensive tackle.," Palzkill said. "He was all over the field with over 10 tackles and two sacks. Riley Workman continues to be great on both sides of the ball and is a playmaker for us. Brandon Dolphin had a nice touchdown reception and continues to do great at the linebacker position. We are fortunate to be very deep on offense and defense right now."
Palzkill also felt the defense did its job against the Cardinals.
"The defense played very well and did not allow Marshall to have big plays," Palzkill said. '"We did struggle to get out of third down situations, but were able to overcome that with a few turnovers. Coach (Justin) Leonard is doing a nice job of allowing our athletes to play within his defensive framework. We are hoping for our athletes to continue to settle in and become more and more confident as we go through the next four weeks."
Overall the Pointers got into the backfield enough times to come up with eight tackles for losses.
The Pointers are on the road for a short while Friday as the head to Iowa-Grant.
"Iowa-Grant is a huge rivalry for us and they are coached very well," Palzkill said. "They are 4-1 as well and this is shaping up to a huge game for both teams.
Our goal will to improve as a football team this week and bring that improvement to the Iowa-Grant game. We are very close to putting a great game together and hopefully it will be this Friday night."