Montague could get very little offense going Thursday night against a potent Forest Hills Eastern squad, taking a 48-7 defeat in the season opener.
The Hawks ripped off score after score in the first half, taking a 34-0 lead into halftime as the 'Cats underwent a mistake-prone 24 minutes.
"I don't know if we weren't ready for the speed or physicality, or what," Montague coach Justin Dennett said. "It took us a while to settle in, and that's a really good football team. It didn't come out the way we hoped but at least we showed a little bit of resilience."
Montague did indeed get the second half off to a good start, getting a defensive stop and scoring its only touchdown of the game when Eli Petersen hit Kellan Francis for a 24-yard score on the ensuing drive, then recovering an onside kick.
Unfortunately, the momentum ended there, and the Hawks shut things down the rest of the way, led by an overwhelming defensive front.
"We feel like we have a lot of potential on the offensive line, but we showed we have
a long way to go," Dennett said. "We saw probably the best two defensive linemen we'll see all year,
but we definitely have a lot of areas to improve."
Dennett added Montague struggled with penalties and blitz pickup during the game.
"That led to some big negative plays that created a hole we couldn't get out of," Dennett said.
Petersen completed 9-of-21 passes for 107 yards and the touchdown, and Dylan Bailey caught four passes for 52 yards. Montague's running game was stifled, gaining 33 yards on 30 attempts. Bailey and Fletcher Thommen each had seven tackles on defense.
