The Wildcats were faced with a challenge this week when starting quarterback Mariano Valenti went down with an injury, causing head coach Shane Richardson to switch up the game plan last minute. Junior quarterback Jake Bilitz was able to get his first start at the college level against UW-Lacrosse and went 9-14 on passing attempts for 42 yards.
“You lose your number one guy, you just got to come up with a new game plan and it’s a different morale with the team,” Richardson said. “You just got to learn what he can do well and try to stay away from maybe some of the things that he can’t.”
NMU couldn’t take advantage of a few good drives that put them into the red zone twice, going 0-2 on touchdown chances. Freshman kicker Michael Karlen went 1-3 on field goals, scoring the ‘Cats’ only point for the game. The Eagles held possession of the ball nearly twice as long as NMU during the game showing just how far this young Wildcats team has to go to become a contender in the GLIAC.
“We’ve got to be able to put the ball in the end zone. I mean, we felt like we were able to run the ball decently and yet, we did talk about as a staff where we weren’t able to capitalize with putting the ball in the end zone at the end of the drives,” Richardson said.
Freshman quarterback Aiden Hoard also got a chance to play in the 3-34 loss against the Eagles at home going 3-7 for 32 yards and fifth year running back Tyquan Cox rushed for 84 yards on 21 carries. Richardson will wait to hear about Valenti’s status before deciding who will start this week on the road.
“We still are trying to understand as a team how to play full speed and snap the whistle every single play,” Richardson said. “I think going into this week, you go back to the drawing board a little bit and just with the quarterback position, you just find out who’s healthy and what we can do.”
NMU will travel to Illinois this weekend to face off against Quincy University for the first time since 2015 where the ‘Cats came away with a 31-14 win. The Wildcats will take the field Saturday Sept. 23 at 2 p.m. in hopes of improving after dropping three straight games to start the season 0-3.
