Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
IRONWOOD — In Ironwood’s final home game of the year, Calumet scored early and often and blitzed Ironwood 42-8 in West-PAC action on a rain-soaked Friday night.
“I’m very happy with where we’re at right now,” Calumet coach John Croze said. “That was our fifth win and we’ll probably get in the playoffs, because we’re the top Class C team in points. Our game is executing with intensity and when we do it well, we’re a pretty tough team.”
The Copper Kings came into the game with a 4-3 record, which was a little deceiving. Croze said the team that started the year was a young squad and Calumet likes to to play a tough non-conference schedule against teams like Ishpeming, Negaunee and Gladstone
“Playing a tough schedule can get you playoff points later in the year and it increases your level of play,” Croze said. “And it gets you ready to play the conference teams.”
Ironwood coach Dan Niemi said he wished he could “erase” the first half and play like the team did in the second half.
“In the second half, we played football,” Niemi said. “We just ran around and swarmed to the football and let it out. I think we’ll do more of that next week.
“Denver (Sharrow) was sick and didn’t start the game, but we got some good performances from guys like Brody (Stefonich),” Niemi said. “One thing we didn’t do was quit. You can’t find a better group of guys. This could easily go south, but these guys still are positive out there. Their good kids and I’m happy with their effort.”
The game started on a positive note for Ironwood, which came out in new sharp-looking black jerseys and cardinal pants.. Stefonich recovered his own onside kick at the Calumet 48-yard line. But the Red Devils gave up the ball on four downs after failing to get a first down.
Calumet ran the ball to Robert Erkkila three straight times, including a 27-yard scamper down to the Ironwood 15. Two plays later, Erkkila barged up the middle on a five-yard touchdown and ran in the two-point conversion for the game’s first points.
On Calumet’s second series, it only took the Copper Kings three plays to go 41-yards and Erkkila capped it off by breaking two tackles on a 34-yard scoring run with 3:57 left in the quarter. His conversion run put Calumet up 16-0.
The Devils had a quick three-and-out and the Copper Kings ran a play action pass in which Nathan Pieti got behind the Ironwood secondary and hauled in a 35-yard bomb from quarterback Tyler Loukus. It would be Loukus’ only pass of the game.
On the next play, Loukus ran option right, kept it on the pitch and sprinted 35-yards to the south end zone. The conversion run failed, leaving Calumet on top 22-0 after the first quarter.
On the first play of the second quarter, Kaden Kangas scored from the six-yard line and Kurtis Keranen split the uprights on the conversion to put the Copper Kings up 29-0.
Calumet matriculated downfield on a seven play, 54-yard drive. The score came on a neat play in which Loukus put the ball into Kangas’ stomach on a handoff but then pulled it out and ran 14-yards for a TD with 6:51 remaining in the quarter. Keranen’s kick put Calumet up 36-0.
After intercepting an Ironwood pass at the Devil 15-yard line, Erkkila scored his third TD to make it 42-0 by halftime.
Running clock came into play in the second half and the Red Devils picked up their defense, shutting out Calumet in the second half.
In the fourth quarter, Stefonich ran an inside counter play to the left and made a good run from the 40-yard line to the eight. Zach Combs finished off the drive by running he same counter play to the right and scored from 12-yards out with 3:18 remaining. Sharrow zipped the conversion pass to Jake DiGiorgio. The game ended at 42-8.
Erkkila was the game’s top rusher with 184-yards on 13 carries.
Stefonich ran hard and led the Red Devils in rushing with 31-yards on 10 attempts. Zach Combs only had three rushes but made the most of his 24-yards with an 8-yard average.
Calumet (5-3, 5-1) goes to Gladstone for a non-conference battle in its regular season finale.
Ironwood (1-7, 0-6) closes out its season by traveling to Gogebic for a non-conference rivalry game on Friday at 7 p.m.
Calumet 22 20 0 0 — 42
Ironwood 0 0 0 8 — 8
First Quarter
Cal — Robert Erkkila 5 run (Erkkila run), 7:19
Cal — Erkkila 34 run (Erkkila run), 3:57
Cal — Tyler Loukus 35 run (run failed), 1:48
Second Quarter
Cal — Kaden Kangas 6 run (Kurtis Keranen kick), 11:55
Cal — Tyler Loukus 12 run (Keranen kick), 6:51
Cal — Erkkila 15 run (kick failed), 6:23
Third Quarter
No scoring
Fourth Quarter
Iwd — Zach Combs 12 run (Jake DiGiorgio pass from Denver Sharrow), 3:18
Cal Iwd
First downs 10 5
Rushes-yards 42-303 33-80
Comp-Atts-Int 1-2-0 1-8-1
Passing yards 35 1
Total yards 338 81
Fumbles-lost 2-1 2-2
Penalties-yards 7-40 4-30
Individual Statistics
Rushing — Calumet, Robert Erkkila 13-184, Kaden Kangas 8-35, Tyler Loukus 5-60, Sam Kariniemi 2-12, Justin Erkkila 3-6, Pete Anderson 3-5, Russ Bjorn 3-1, Austin Rilei 1-0, JoeCurtis 3-minus 1. Ironwood, Shane Buckley 10-20, Brody Stefonich 10-31, Denver Sharrow 5-22, Jordan Giannunzio 4-minus 5, Zach Combs 3-24.
Passing — Calumet, Tyler Loukus 1-1-0-35, Pete Anderson 0-1-0-0. Ironwood, Desmond Sackmann 0-2-0-0 Denver Sharrow 1-5-1, Brody Stefonich 0-1-0-0.
Receiving — Calumet, Nathan Pieti 1-35, Ironwood, Shane Buckley 1-1.