Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
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IRONWOOD — Last year’s Kiwanis Border Bash all-star basketball game wasn’t going to be easy to top, not with members of the three-time state champion North Central boys team filling the Lindquist Center gym and leading Northern Michigan to a victory. “That’s what everybody was telling me, but I think we got close” for this year’s games, event director Russ Maki said. “We should pack that gym again.” Ewen-Trout Creek standout Jake Witt headlines a talented group that pits many of the top boys and girls basketball players in the Upper Peninsu...
By PAT KRAUSE [email protected] IRONWOOD - Last Sunday, the Gogebic Community College Lady Samsons won the NJCAA Women's Region 13 Division II Basketball Championship for the first time since the 2008-09 season with a 87-67 victory over United Tribes Tech. After the game, there were a lot of happy, emotional people celebrating the championship on the floor of the Lindquist Center and coach Mark Movrich declared "the drought" was over. "The win meant a lot to the girls," Movrich said....
WATERSMEET - Watersmeet coach Brent Besonen was a bit worried the pressure of getting to 2,000 career points might get to Bethany Baldwin on the opening night of the tournament Monday. She put those fears to rest in a hurry. The senior scored 17 in the first quarter, surpassed the milestone in the third quarter and finished with 41 points, leading the Nimrods past the Speedgirls 64-46 in the first round of the MHSAA Class D District 127 tournament. The Nimrods will host Wakefield-Marenisco in a...
WAKEFIELD - What a stretch of games for the Watersmeet Nimrods. They lost to No. 1 Dollar Bay Thursday night, fell to the third-place team in the conference, Wakefield-Marenisco, Friday night, 80-53, and they face back-to-back meetings with No. 3 Ewen-Trout Creek early next week. "We're playing the best teams in the U.P., some of them," Watersmeet coach George Peterson III said. "That's one way that our young guys will grow. I'm challenging them to get better every night." Watersmeet's Julius...
EWEN - When Eli Nordine hit Jake Witt for an alley-oop in a summer league game in 2016, coach Brad Besonen quipped that it was the first in Ewen-Trout Creek history. Except he really wasn't joking. Witt has broken the mold of the E-TC standout. For all the great E-TC players, few have been quite like Witt, the 6-foot-7, 240-pound star who has played in the extremely rarified air above the Ewen rims. "All the other good players we've had, it seems like most of them have all been guards - good...
By PAT KRAUSE [email protected] IRONWOOD - Ironwood's Kyle Pallin, now in his 15th year of snocross racing, is once again enjoying considerable success on the Amsoil Championship Snocross eight race circuit, which features many of the best snocross racers in the world. Pallin's first race of the season was Thanksgiving weekend in Duluth, Minn. at Spirit Mountain, but it didn't turn out the way Pallin was hoping for. Pallin got off to what he called "a very rocky, rough" season-opener in...
IRONWOOD - Samsons' coach Dennis Mackey could feel the energy and enthusiasm while watching the women's game before his own team took the court Wednesday night. GCC had a new rival -- Bay College. When his team took the court, there was no doubt. "The guys were excited, it was a good crowd, you could just feel the energy was different than other nights," Mackey said. Gogebic Community College struck first blood in the new rivalry, prevailing 96-89 in a back-and-forth triple overtime thriller....
MELLEN, Wis. — Hurley suffered a 46-42 Indianhead Conference loss at Mellen Saturday afternoon. “We came out a little flat, we didn’t play with the same energy as Thursday night,” Hurley coach Steve Lombardo said, referring to a win over Butternut. Brooke Olson got a couple of 3s to fall early against Mellen’s zone, but the Granite Diggers focused their defense on her after that. Aiyana Nickel led Hurley with 16 points. Morgan Ellias had 21 points to lead Mellen. “She’s a very nice player. She creates for herself and her teammates,” L...
IRONWOOD --- As a freshman last year, Lori Wardynski was GCC's best player. Yet there were times, she admits, where she would frustrate her coach, where she didn't quite get the message he was trying to send. Wardynski worked and worked and worked through the offseason, lifting weights, becoming faster and stronger, all while getting into the physical shape she needed to be in to lead the Lady Samsons' exhausting offense. This fall, her coach Mark Movrich had an idea for her to take things a...
IRONWOOD - The Pro Vintage Snowmobile Races scheduled for Saturday at the Gogebic County Fairgrounds were canceled due to inclement weather. It was ten degrees below zero with a wind chill of minus 31 degrees at 6:45 a.m., but race director Tom Auvinen said the races were canceled due to problems with the snow. "We had the track plowed and clear at 7 a.m., but then the lake effect snowstorm came in," Auvinen said. "We met and canceled at 9 a.m. Driver safety has always been a priority." It was...
EWEN - Pass. Pass. Pass. Reset. Pass. Pass. Pass. And then maybe after 45 seconds, the Drummond Lumberjacks would put up a shot. On and on the methodical pace went, as the Ewen-Trout Creek Panthers were forced to partake in Drummond's grind-it-out style, which would be Exhibit A in why high school basketball should have a shot clock. But as disjointed as the flow became, E-TC hit just enough shots when it mattered to persevere 35-25 in a nonconference game Friday in Ewen. E-TC senior Jake Witt...
By JASON JUNO [email protected] IRONWOOD - Up by three points in the final seconds, Ironwood coach Pete Lewinski didn't even think about fouling to prevent a 3-point shot attempt by Hurley. The way his defense was playing, he didn't have to. The only shot Hurley could get off was a 2 at the buzzer, as Ironwood played excellent defense on their 3-point shooters. It gave the Red Devils a 36-35 Indianhead Conference victory over their archrivals Thursday night in front of a packed house....
IRONWOOD - Ironwood coach Kari Jacquart told her team to expect a low-scoring defensive battle with rival Hurley and that's exactly what happened. The Red Devils defeated Hurley 42-30 Tuesday night in front of a good-sized pre-Christmas crowd. It was the third win for Ironwood in its last four meetings with Hurley. "It's a big game, everybody gets up for it," Ironwood coach Kari Jacquart said. "I'm still used to Bessemer being our rival because that's who it was when we played. It was really...
IRONWOOD - After scoring just 23 points in the first half, reaching a five-year high on the scoreboard by game's end was about the last thing Ironwood expected Friday night. But a 50-point second half made that a reality. The Devils beat Butternut 73-54, their best offensive output since scoring 75 against Mercer on Dec. 7, 2012. Ironwood was up 23-15 at the half before building a 20-point lead in the second half of the Indianhead Conference matchup, getting to the basket at will. Butternut cut...
SOLON SPRINGS, Wis. — Solon Springs defeated Ironwood 66-52 in the season opener for the Red Devils’ boys basketball team Monday night. Ironwood coach Pete Lewinski said the game was close throughout the first half, but Solon Springs went up by seven points by halftime. "But we came out flat in the second half and they went ahead by 12 points," Lewinski said. "We cut it to 54-47, but that's the closest we got. Their big guy (Jens Gehl) was real good. He had 23 points and we had no answer for him." Lewinski said Tony Wiemeri was "the bright spo...
EAGLE RIVER, Wis. — A strong, lanky Northland Pines team defeated the Hurley Midgettes 52-34 in non-conference action on Monday night. Hurley coach Steve Lombardo was happy to see his team get off to a good start and and take an early 11-7 lead. "But then we went into a lull," Lombardo said. "We got out of rhythm and tried to force the action. We wound up with 23 turnovers." Lombardo said Northland Pines is a real good basketball team with plenty of height. Pines' best player is 5-11 sophomore Jacqueline Smith. "She is a tremendous player w...
MERCER, Wis. — Mercer led most of the game, but Mellen came out on top 68-64 Monday night in Indianhead Conference boys basketball. Mellen took a late lead, 64-61, but Mercer’s Alex Schmidt responded with a 3 to tie. Mellen got a steal on its press and took the lead with a basket. The Tigers missed a wide open 3 for the lead and Mellen got another basket before the horn. Mercer missed guard Kobe Hiller when he fouled out with more than 3 minutes left. Schmidt led Mercer with 34 points. He played a “heck of a game,” Aaron Luse played nearly...
PAINESDALE — When the clock read 4:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon, Trent Keteri was hit with a sudden burst of nerves and his hands began to shake. The new Jeffers head coach was getting ready for his first game at the helm as the Jets took on visiting Bessemer. He could hardly stand the anticipation, but by the time the junior varsity game got underway, the nerves fell away. Good thing, too, because the overtime thriller was anything but relaxing. Bessemer defeated Jeffers 71-63 Monday at Jeffers in a game that exceeded Keteri's expectations. "...
PORT WING, Wis. - South Shore looked every bit the part of conference favorite in the first half, building a 37-18 lead on Hurley, which looked every bit the part of a team working in new - but dynamic - pieces. In the second half, Hurley showed it may just be a sleeper in the Indianhead Conference, fighting back to within a possession. They ultimately lost 50-48, but they came away with a lot of positives. "I'm just pleased with how the kids bought into not going crazy in the second half,"...
TURTLE LAKE, Wis. --- While the score may have looked like it, Hurley didn't play a basketball game Friday night. Their football season shows no signs of ending anytime soon. Taking their offense to another level, the No. 4-seeded Midgets defeated No. 5 Turtle Lake 76-44 Friday night in a WIAA Division 7 Level 1 playoff game. Hurley compiled a video-game like 647 rushing yards, led by senior fullback Scott Subert's 318, and it was more than enough to offset the Lakers' vaunted passing attack....
HURLEY - Sure Hurley probably could have made the playoffs regardless of Friday night's result. But from the opening play of the game, when the Midgets' Isaac DeCarlo ran down and knocked the ball loose from Houghton's running back just short of what looked like a sure touchdown, you got the feeling pretty quickly they weren't going to leave anything to chance. The Midgets clinched a WIAA Division 7 playoff berth with a 22-6 West-PAC win over Houghton. It's their 20th straight trip to the postse...
CALUMET — After an offensive first half Friday night, the Calumet Copper Kings and Gogebic Miners decided to play some defense in the second half. The two teams were knotted at 22-22 after the first two quarters, but the only scoring in the final half came with six minutes to play when junior tailback Travis Ojala of CHS scooted in from 3 yards out. Matt Ojala took a pass from Brent Loukus for the 2-point conversion for an important 30-22 victory. The win lifted Calumet to 5-3 on the season and kept their hopes alive for a playoff spot. ...
ONTONAGON - In a game loaded with offensive fireworks, Ontonagon made a fierce comeback, but Crystal Falls Forest Park held on for a 52-38 win in a Western Eight Conference battle with playoff implications for both teams. "The game was what we expected," Forest Park coach Dave Graf said. "It was hard-hitting, good physical football on both sides. I never thought we'd score 90 points. I thought we'd score four or five each (touchdowns). Ontonagon nearly came back on us. Jake Witt is the real deal...
HURLEY - For nearly all of the first half, the Hurley-Gogebic game was more than living up to the hype Friday night. The new-look Midgets looked solid, and the Miners, in their first game since Ironwood joined the Bessemer/Wakefield-Marenisco co-op, looked just as tough. Hurley, though, took control of the game with 22 unanswered points, including 14 in a crazy final minute, 22 seconds of the first half. The Midgets won 44-20 in front of a huge crowd. "It's a big win, we put up 44 on a good...
By LARRY HOLCOMBE [email protected] HURLEY - Golf is a game of numbers. It took four playoff holes for Jack Croci and Tim Steiger to win their fifth Hurley Quarterback Club golf tournament - the 20th annual held Friday at Eagle Bluff Golf Club - outlasting two other teams who also shot 4-under-par 66 for the day. Croci, from Hurley, and Steiger, from Bessemer, were all smiles afterwards as the shadows began to grow across the fairways. "It was a good day," said Croci of their two-man...
