Midgets lose by an extra point to Mountaineers

HURLEY - It was fitting that Hurley ended the regular season with another down-to-the-wire contest.

A missed two-point conversion and some missed opportunities prevented the evenly-played game from ending in Hurley's favor as Iron Mountain won 23-22 Friday night. It was the fourth Hurley game this season that was decided in the final moments.

Hurley finished the regular season at 7-2. With that record, the Midgets should get a first-round playoff home game in today's WIAA Division 6 seeding meeting. But that's no sure thing.

"We did play good," Hurley coach Scott Erickson said. "We certainly hate to lose. We had a couple plays that could have went our way and didn't. They had a couple plays that went their way. They're a good football team. We thought we would have a chance against them and we did. I think our kids just needed to believe they could play with a Mid-Pen team like this. I think our guys really gave it a great effort."

Iron Mountain improved to 5-3 and kept its playoff hopes alive with the victory in a very good game played amidst more wet and cool weather.

"We did just enough to win and I'm happy for our kids," Iron Mountain coach Robin Martilla said.

Devin Czerneski's one-yard touchdown run pulled Hurley within 15-14 with 6:50 left in the third quarter. His two-point conversion run was no good, though, as Iron Mountain got penetration.

The Mountaineers added to their lead in the fourth quarter with a 23-yard pass from Tanner Huotari to Jacob Stoner with 7:21 to go.

Now up 21-14, Iron Mountain could have kicked the extra point - it kicked a point after in the first quarter - and safely been up by a touchdown and two-point conversion. Instead, the Mountaineers wanted to be up by two possessions and Tanner Huotari ran in the conversion.

"I knew they were going to go for two because they've always gone for two and they've got a pretty good running game," Marttila said. "We did the math. We were up seven; do we want to go up nine and put a little pressure on them? You get that to two-score (lead) in the fourth quarter, all of a sudden that clock goes tick-tock. Our quarterback, Tanner made a great play, an inside-outside cut and got to the endzone. And we just hung on in the end."

The Midgets came right back and scored on the ensuing drive. James Sukanen found Jake Tenlen for a 44-yard pass to the Iron Mountain 5. Czerneski ran it in from four yards out. James Sukanen threw to Jake Tenlen for the two-point conversion to pull within 23-22.

Iron Mountain took possession with 4:29 left and it used all but nine seconds of it thanks to two first downs as Hurley was forced to use all three of its timeouts. The Mountaineers punted with nine seconds left, but time ran out on the return.

"They went to that side and we couldn't get them to stop it," Erickson said of the final drive.

The Mountaineers struck first in the game when Huotari kept it and ran 56 yards for a touchdown. The Ryan Michaud kick made it 7-0 Iron Mountain.

Hurley faced fourth and 3 on the ensuing possession, but its fake punt run attempt by Matt Christoferson only went a yard.

It didn't hurt the Midgets, though, as Jacob Saari recovered an Iron Mountain fumble at 37. Sukanen appeared to have Kris Bluse for a wide-open catch and then a wide-open path to the end zone, but the pass went long and Hurley was forced to punt.

The Mountaineers went three-and-out on the next possession and a 59-yard punt pushed Hurley back to its own 27.

The Midgets seven-play, 73-yard drive was capped by a 43-yard run by Nick Fink. Cole Huotari ran in the two-point conversion for an 8-7 Hurley lead.

Iron Mountain scored on its next drive, on a six-yard run by Justin Rock with 1:29 to play in the half. Tanner Huotari ran in the conversion and Iron Mountain led 15-8 at the half.

Hurley missed another open passing opportunity and ended up turning it over on downs to start the second half.

Tandrell Foster recovered a fumble on the first play of Iron Mountain's next possession and Hurley took advantage with a one-yard TD run by Czerneski. That's when Hurley missed the conversion try and Iron Mountain was able to win by a point.

The stats were pretty even with Iron Mountain outrushing Hurley 162-151 as both teams carried it 37 times in the wet conditions. Hurley outgained Iron Mountain overall 63-44.

Czerneski led Hurley with 63 yards on 12 carries. He had two touchdowns.

Hurley starts the WIAA playoffs next Friday or Saturday. The eight-team region was to have been determined early this morning with the coaches' seeding meeting at 11 a.m. The Midgets will learn their entire bracket and their Level 1 opponent then.

Iron Mountain plays Norway to end the regular season next week.

Iron Mountain 7 8 0 8 - 23

Hurley 0 8 6 8 - 22

First Quarter

IM - Tanner Huotari 56 run (Ryan Michaud kick), 10:00

Second Quarter

Hur - Nick Fink 43 run (Cole Huotari run), 8:35

IM - Justin Rock 6 run (Tanner Huotari run), 1:29

Third Quarter

Hur - Devin Czerneski 1 run (run failed), 6:50

Fourth Quarter

IM - Jacob Stoner 23 pass from Tanner Huotari (Tanner Huotari run), 7:21

Hur - Czerneski 4 run (Jake Tenlen pass from James Sukanen), 4:31

IM Hur

First downs 7 11

Rushes-yards 37-162 37-151

Comp-Att-Int 2-4-0 3-7-0

Passing 44 63

Total yards 206 214

Penalties-yards 6-52 2-10

Fumbles-lost 3-2 2-1

Individual statistics

Rushing - Iron Mountain, Justin Rock, 19-70, Tanner Huotari 8-51, Brock Grenier 7-27, David Mielcarek 3-14. Hurley, Devin Czerneski 12-63, Nick Fink 4-56, Cole Huotari 10-36, Kris Bluse 4-13, Matt Christoferson 1-1, Jake Tenlen 2-minus 6, James Sukanen 4-minus 12.

Passing - Iron Mountain, Tanner Huotari, 2-4-44-0. Hurley, James Sukanen, 3-7-63-0.

Receiving - Iron Mountain, Jacob Stoner, 1-23, Ryan Michaud 1-21. Hurley, Jake Tenlen, 2-53, Tandrell Foster 1-10.