MANISTEE — Bridge construction gnarled traffic in downtown Manistee since mid-summer.
The traffic in Manistee’s end zone Thursday may have been busier.
The newly-minted Mariners struck gold on every possession but two — one of which ended with the ball on the 24 as the first half ended — in a season-opening 45-0 nonconference home victory over Kalkaska at Mariner Field.
Senior fullback Isaiah Davis scored the first touchdown in Mariner history after the school jettisoned the Chippewas nickname starting this fall, rumbling up the middle for a 7-yard TD to end Manistee’s 12-play opening drive that featured nothing but runs.
“It is a privilege. It’s just privilege,” Davis said. “It’s going to be wild. I can tell my children and my grandchildren, ‘I’m the first Mariner to ever score a touchdown.’ That is pretty cool.”
Manistee (1-0) holds a 6-3 series lead against Kalkaska (0-1), with the last meeting being a 62-6 Manistee win in the 2020 playoffs. The last regular-season meeting came in 1989 when both schools were in the now-defunct North Central Conference.
New Manistee linebacker Nathan Doremus certainly made his presence felt early on, with the transfer from Texas coming up one sack of Manistee’s single-game record of three.
“Oh, my goodness, I didn’t know he was like that,” Davis said.
He also had two tackles for loss among his four stops.
“I really was excited to see Nathan,” Manistee head coach Troy Bytwork said. “I don’t spend a lot of time watching defense, but every time I looked up, he was flying to the ball. He seeks it out and he’s a sure tackler.”
Doremus (5-11, 170) played last year at Friendswood High School, a 5A Texas team where he played behind four-star recruit and Southern California commit Braylan Shelby for half the season before earning a starting linebacker spot in the second half.
“It was amazing,” Doremus said. “Just being able to go out and make plays from the get go, it was really fun. It’s a lot different atmosphere-wise from Texas, but I’m all for it and it was a lot of fun.”
Doremus said the weather was definitely different than what he’s experienced in Texas. The game was played in temperatures in the low 70s and upper 60s, with a list misting rain much of the first half.
“I’s probably 110 degrees in Texas right now and they’re struggling,” Doremus said. “We came out of the locker room at the start of the game and I’m like, ‘It’s a little chilly out here,’ so it’s a little different.”
Freshman Dayvion Neal-Berry made his first varsity start and completed 3-of-4 passes for 55 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another 22 yards.
“(I was) a little nervous, but I was ready for it,” Neal-Berry said. “After I settled in, I was feeling good, pretty confident in how I was playing.”
Both of his TD passes went to Kaden Kott, who ran for 54 yards on seven carries and caught two passes for 47 yards.
“If we keep it up, we can be a pretty dangerous team in the playoffs,” Neal-Berry said. “Our run game was very good today. Sky’s the limit. We can go pretty far this season.”
The one time Manistee was forced to punt late in the game, sophomore Brayden Schweitzer handled the duties after starter Caius Jones was dinged up. The junior varsity punter had already played his fifth quarter in the third, so Manistee was down to its third punter.
Manistee led 27-0 at halftime, as Nick Hornkuhl scored on an 18-yard run, Davis scored his second 7-yard rushing touchdown and Kott hauled in a 39-yard TD pass from Neal-Berry.
The Mariners added a 19-yard Hornkuhl TD in the third quarter, a 10-yard TD connection from Neal-Berry to Kott and a 9-yard TD run by Austen Halcome.
“We’ve got a great core, a bunch of good leaders,” Doremus said. “And a lot of younger guys that rally around leaders like Landis Sowa, Kaden Kott, guys like that.”
Hornkuhl ended with 136 rushing yards on 14 carries, adding an interception on defense.
Davis was another big-time player for the defense, making six tackles and a sack. Braydon Sorenson had five tackles and Brian McNeil had a sack.
Kalkaska senior Evan Hardy blocked two Mariner extra points, Tommy Olds had a sack and Carson Hillier sniffed out a two-point conversion run for a stop.
“You’re never as good as you think and it’s never as bad as what you think,” Bytwork said. “We have some work to do on our extra point team. Number one on the list is special teams, but specifically extra point.”
It’s the first of two consecutive Thursday night home games, with Mason County Central visiting Manistee next week. The Blazers also play Thursday next week, hosting Morley Stanwood.
“The upside is that we see what we have to work on now,” Davis said. “We can we can watch real film. Scrimmages just don’t really show you on film what you have to fix. They show you an extent, but it’s only 30 plays. Now we can see what we have to fix and work on to become better.”