Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Hurley's Cole Huotari (5) runs during Friday night's game against Baraga at Veterans Memorial Field in Hurley. He led Hurley with 95 yards on eight carries; he had three touchdowns.
HURLEY - Hurley secured its second undisputed Great Western Conference championship with a 51-6 victory over Baraga Friday night.
The Midgets finished 4-0 in the conference. The last time Hurley won the conference by itself was in 2011 when it went 5-0.
"I'm very proud of our kids for accomplishing that," Hurley coach Scott Erickson said. "Very, very happy. That was not an easy road, at Forest Park, at Gogebic, Lake Linden. Those teams are ranked in the state right now (Forest Park, sixth; Lake Linden, 10th) and Gogebic's as good as anybody. To come through that, I'm really proud of what our kids have done."
This marks Hurley's fifth conference title overall. The Midgets shared it with Crystal Falls Forest Park in 2004 and it was a tri-championship in 2010 and 2012. They split it with Forest Park and Lake Linden in 2010 and Forest Park and the Gogebic Miners in 2012.
The 6-1 Midgets didn't have any problem with the 0-6 Vikings, taking a 44-6 lead into the half.
"We tried to execute some things and work on some plays in the perimeter game," Erickson said. "The kids played good. Everybody got a lot of playing time."
Hurley scored three touchdowns in the first and second quarters.
In the first quarter, Devin Czerneski started the scoring with a seven-yard run just two minutes, seven seconds into the game.
Cole Huotari ran it from 15 yards out 1:50 later. Czerneski's two-point run put Hurley up 14-0.
James Sukanen hit Jake Tenlen for a 10-yard score. Jacob Saari ran in the conversion for a 22-0 lead heading into the second quarter.
Huotari ran in two more touchdowns in the second quarter. Between his scores, Baraga scored its only touchdown of the day on a four-yard pass from Austin Smith to Corbin Crittenden.
Sukanen ran in Hurley's final TD of the first half from four yards out.
The Midgets scored once more in the third quarter, on a 27-yard run by Kris Bluse. Jordan Moore's extra point made it 51-6.
Huotari led Hurley with 95 yards on eight carries. Bluse ran for 57 yards on four carries.
Hurley's leading rusher and receiver Mitchell Maki couldn't go because of an injury suffered in pregame warmups.
Hurley heads to Washburn Friday.
Baraga 0 6 0 0 - 6
Hurley 22 22 7 0 - 51
First Quarter
Hur - Devin Czerneski 7 run (pass failed), 9:53
Hur - Cole Huotari 15 run (Czerneski run), 8:03
Hur - Jake Tenlen 10 pass from James Sukanen (Jacob Saari run), 4:57
Second Quarter
Hur - Huotari 9 run (Huotari run), 9:45
Bar - Corbin Crittenden 4 pass from Austin Smith (run failed), 7:47
Hur - Huotari 29 run (Ronnie Nickel from Sukanen), 7:08
Hur - Sukanen 4 run (kick failed), 4:11
Third Quarter
Hur - Kris Bluse 27 run (Moore kick), 6:40
Bar Hur
First downs 5 11
Rushes-yards 20-43 39-321
Comp-Att-Int 3-16-1 2-3-0
Passing 72 45
Total yards 115 366
Penalties-yards 3-15 2-10
Fumbles-lost 2-2 0-0
Individual statistics
Rushing - Baraga, Michael Turunen 5-23, Eddie Ling 6-12, Corbin Crittenden 4-10, Austin Smith 5-minus 2. Hurley, Cole Huotari 8-95, Kris Bluse 4-57, Devin Czerneski 3-50, Nick Fink 3-33, James Sukanen 2-21, Jake Tenlen 1-14, Scott Subert 4-13, Ronnie Nickel 3-13, Tanner Stephani 4-10, Jake Saari 4-7, Adam Hendricks 2-3, Alex Czarnecki 1-5.
Passing - Baraga, Austin Smith, 3-16-72-1. Hurley, James Sukanen, 2-3-45-0.
Receiving - Baraga, Jonah Goodreau 1-57, Chaz Forcia 1-11, Corbin Crittenden 1-4. Hurley, Ronnie Nickel 1-35, Jake Tenlen 1-10.
