Eagles' rally stuns Midgets

HURLEY - Hurley was as shocked Friday as Crystal Falls Forest Park was last week.

Northland Pines came back from a 23-6 deficit to hand Hurley a 37-31 non-conference loss at Veterans Memorial Field. That came one week after the Midgets came back from a 14-6 deficit in the final 6:30 to win at Crystal Falls.

This time, everything went against Hurley in the second half when a fast Pines team outscored the Midgets 31-15, including the final 19 points in the final seven minutes.

"We didn't have enough bullets in the gun to finish the deal," Hurley coach Scott Erickson said. "It's not that we couldn't move the football and score. But when we started losing some bodies (about five left at one point due to injury) ... They've got a lot of speed. The speed hurt us."

It was the first loss of the season for the Midgets, who fell to 4-1, and face another strong test next week against Gogebic at Bessemer.

"Disappointed for our guys," Erickson said. "I know they wanted to be undefeated going into that Gogebic game. Now we've got to go home and try to heal up and get ready and play a real tough team next week."

A good-sized crowd from Northland Pines (3-2) was loud in the fourth quarter and the team celebrated like the big win it was.

"It's a fantastic win for us," Northland Pines coach Eric Swanson said. "We practiced well all week. We had some concerns about their size. But overall, we run these kids everyday to build on these type of situations where we had more gas than the other team did in the end."

Hurley finished with 400 total yards and Pines had 399. The Eagles were tough to stop on special teams, running the ball and through the air.

"Our spread is so deadly of a weapon," Swanson said. "We ran the ball enough tonight to make that spread effective or vice versa, however you want to look at. We're just a happy bunch of people right now."

Hurley took a 16-6 lead into the second half and the Midgets struck first in the second half.

Ronnie Nickel's 49-yard kickoff return gave Hurley good field position and Mitchell Maki ran for a 44-yard touchdown 44 seconds into the half. His extra point kick made it 23-6 Hurley.

But Pines closed the third quarter with 12 points to firmly get back in it.

Joe Roach capped a 14-play, 56-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown run.

The Midgets marched down the field again. A penalty made fourth and 5, fourth and 10, and the Eagles intercepted a pass by James Sukanen at the 1-yard line.

On the first play of the ensuing drive, Lance Bontrager ran 99 yards for a touchdown. The conversion try failed, but the Eagles were within 23-18 with 1:23 left in the third quarter.

"That was the big changer right there," Erickson said. "We had just been down there and needed to score right away and then they come back and hit that long run with a lot of speed."

The Midgets answered that touchdown with a 13-play, 80-yard touchdown drive. Devin Czerneski scored the TD. His two-point conversion made it two possessions again, 31-18, with 7:08 left.

But Bontrager returned the kickoff 67 yards, giving the Eagles possession at the Hurley 23. Three plays later, quarterback Jack Sarama hit Bontrager for a 20-yard TD pass. The extra point was good, making it 31-25 Hurley.

Sarama found Bontrager a total of six times for 74 yards.

"We knew it was coming," Erickson said. "That's the tough part. That's a play we worked on all week, 46 on that little hook up. He's a tough back. He's tough to tackle. He not only made the catches, he got out of a lot of tackles, too."

With the way Hurley can burn clock, the Eagles went for the onside kick with 5:54 left in the game. Ryan Ozelie recovered it at the Hurley 47.

Five plays later, Roach got loose for a 24-yard score. The extra point was wide left, leaving the game tied at 31-31 with 4:46 left.

The Midgets got the ball back at their own 25 and moved to the Pines' 41 on six plays. But they turned it over on downs with 1:29 left.

Sarama found Bailey Ramesh for a 57-yard touchdown. The kick failed, making it 37-31.

"I'm going to call it a go route," Swanson said. "We knew Bailey Ramesh had a little edge if he could get there, it would give the quarterback just enough time to make that throw. The biggest thing with that throw is he put (enough) underneath it for Bailey to come underneath."

Hurley had to go to the air, but none of the four passes were completed and the Midgets lost a heartbreaker at home.

"They've got a lot of speed and a lot of athletes," Erickson said. "We've got to pick up the pieces now."

Maki finished with a game-high 148 rushing yards on 21 carries. He scored three times. Sarama was 10 for 17 through the air for 161 yards.

"We have speed on this team," Swanson said. "We're not big obviously, nobody over 215. To me, that's what we need. If we're not going to be big, we're going to need to have speed and we're blessed to have it."

Northland Pines 6 0 12 19 - 37

Hurley 16 0 7 8 - 31

First Quarter

Hur - Mitchell Maki 9 run (Cole Huotari run), 9:10

NP - Lance Bontrager 8 pass from Jack Sarama (kick failed), 7:32

Hur - Maki 2 run (Maki run), 1:52

Second Quarter

No scoring

Third Quarter

Hur - Maki 44 run (Maki kick), 11:16

NP - Joe Roach 1 run (pass failed), 6:39

NP - Bontrager 99 run (pass failed), 1:23

Fourth Quarter

Hur - Devin Czerneski 1 run (Czerneski run), 7:08

NP - Bontrager 20 pass from Sarama (Jake Jantzen kick), 5:54

NP - Roach 24 run (kick failed), 4:46

NP - Bailey Ramesh 57 pass from Sarama (kick failed), :36

NP Hur

First downs 9 21

Rushes-yards 36-238 55-369

Comp-Att-Int 10-17-0 4-14-2

Passing 161 31

Total yards 399 400

Penalties-yards 5-40 6-35

Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0

Individual statistics

Rushing - Northland Pines, Lance Bontrager 11-139, Joe Roach 13-55, Bailey Ramesh 7-34, Ryan Ozelie 2-10, John Puffer 3-0. Hurley, Mitchell Maki 21-148, Devin Czerneski 18-84, Nick Fink 7-72, Cole Huotari 7-65, Jake Tenlen 1-2, James Sukanen 1-minus 2.

Passing - Northland Pines, Jack Sarama, 10-17-161-0. Hurley, James Sukanen, 4-13-31-2, Jake Tenlen, 0-1-0-0.

Receiving - Northland Pines, Lance Bontrager, 6-74, Bailey Ramesh 3-74, Joe Roach 1-13. Hurley, Mitchell Maki 3-25, Jake Tenlen 1-6.