The Munising Mustang football team got its first win of the season with an impressive 56-11 victory over the Rapid River Rockets.

“We’ve had a little rough stretch to start off with. Offensively we didn’t score a lot in the first three weeks, but we finally put some points on the board,” Munising Head Coach Matt Mattson said.

Blake Walther had a big first half with three rushing touchdowns as part of a 32-3 advantage for the home team at the break. He also had multiple completions to three different receivers in the more balanced offensive attack for the Mustangs.

Walther did not return for the second half, but instead quarterback Tyler Nelson got the nod. He looked impressive as well, connecting with Jamisen Ake for an 11-yard touchdown throw on the second drive of the third quarter.

Mattson said that a lot of opportunities were available offensively for Munising because they were able to win the position battles at the line of scrimmage.

“Rapid River is pretty big up front, but our offensive line played great. We’ve had problems winning the line of scrimmage and we did a pretty good job of that tonight,” the coach said. “We have decent talent in the backfield and we did a better job of blocking for them tonight.”

Defensively, the Mustangs had problems at time handling Rocket quarterback Blake Sundquist. The gunslinger was able to find ways out of the rush, but the coverage stood strong for Munising.

“He was good last year and we knew they would throw it more than run, but it’s hard to get to him because they snap it so deep and moves around pretty well,” Mattson said. “Not so many sacks, but our coverage held up well and that made a difference.”

Munising looks to start a winning streak tonight against a talented Indian River-Inland Lakes squad, who is one of the top teams from the Lower Peninsula. The Bulldogs already have a win in Munising this season, winning a neutral site game against Lake Linden Hubbell earlier in the season.