Midgets blank Knights

HURLEY - After a grueling regular season, the Hurley Midgets could breathe easily in their playoff opener.

No. 3-seeded Hurley started the WIAA Division 6 postseason with a 37-0 shutout of No. 6 Lake Holcombe/Cornell Friday night.

The Midgets played what coach Scott Erickson called their toughest schedule in his 23 years of coaching and survived with just two losses.

"Our kids played at a high level tonight," Erickson said. "I think our schedule has set us up to play very well in the playoffs, especially against smaller schools that we're a little bit bigger and stronger than."

The Midgets (8-2) travel to No. 2 seed Spring Valley (8-2) Friday night in a Level 2 matchup. Spring Valley struggled to beat No. 7 Elmwood-Plum City 65-42 Friday in its postseason opener. Lake Holcombe shut out Elmwood-Plum City 20-0 during the regular season.

Cole Huotari scored four of Hurley's five touchdowns. The Midgets won despite another injury to another running back. Devin Czerneski left the game in the second quarter with an arm injury; Mitchell Maki is already out.

"I think it was our line; they did a hell of a job tonight," said Huotari, who also led Hurley with 96 yards rushing. "They just kept pushing, made the holes huge. The defense was stout."

The Midgets totaled 469 yards of offense, including 412 on the ground. Lake Holcombe hadn't played against Hurley's deceptive offense before Friday.

"This system is hard and if you've never seen our system, it's hard to prepare for in one week," Erickson said. "It looks like it's nothing and all of a sudden, you get out there in game speed and it's tough. I'm really proud of the way our guys handled it tonight, offensive line and defensive line. Everybody played really, really solid. Great team victory."

The Midgets scored on their first two possessions in the first quarter. Huotari ran in first from a yard out and Jake Tenlen scored on a five-yard keeper. Hurley led 14-0.

Hurley lost a chance to go up by three scores when James Sukanen fumbled on the Lake Holcombe 8 yard line.

The Knights' Preston Strzok got loose and looked headed for the end zone, but Tenlen ran him down and stopped him for a 66-yard gain at the Hurley 16.

"Either he was slowing down or I was just fast enough to catch him," Tenlen said. "I think I was fast enough to catch him. It was huge because I caught him and we had that goal line stand and that set the tone for the rest of the game."

Three plays later, John Stender ran 12 yards to the 1.

With first and goal at the Hurley 1, Hurley stopped Lake Holcombe twice for no gain and once back to the 2.

On fourth and goal from the 2, Huotari and Tandrell Foster stopped Strzok for just a one-yard gain with 6 minutes left in the half.

Hurley then went 99 yards in 12 plays and used 5:04 of the clock. Huotari scored his second touchdown on a three-yard run. His two-point run made it 22-0.

"That's what we talked about all year. We jumped out on them early and then had a knockout chance and we fumbled it," Erickson said. "Then they come all the way down and we stop them. And then we go all the way down and score. That was important, as was the one coming out of halftime. Every score is big, but the ones that stop the momentum of the other team, those are the real big ones."

The Midgets struck right after halftime, completing a 62-yard, 8-play drive that took 7:26 with a Huotari 11-yard run. The conversion pass from Sukanen to Erik Barker made it 30-0 Hurley.

Hurley got the running clock going with Huotari's fourth TD, a two-yard run, five seconds into the fourth quarter. Tenlen kicked the extra point.

Lake Holcombe 0 0 0 0 - 0

Hurley 14 8 8 7 - 37

First Quarter

Hur - Cole Huotari 1 run (run failed), 8:30

Hur - Jake Tenlen 5 run (Austin Kolpin pass from Tenlen), 3:29

Second Quarter

Hur - Huotari 3 run (Huotari run), :56

Third Quarter

Hur - Huotari 11 run (Erik Barker pass from Sukanen), 7:34

Fourth Quarter

Hur - Huotari 2 run (Tenlen kick), 11:55

LHC Hur

First downs 8 23

Rushes-yards 35-142 53-412

Comp-Att-Int 2-5-1 3-7-0

Passing 30 57

Total yards 172 469

Fumbles-lost 2-1 2-1

Penalties-yards 1-5 3-15

Individual statistics

Rushing - LHC, Preston Strzok 11-113, John Stender 11-33, Cortland Spletter 6-4, Colton Hetke 3-minus 5, Richard Winchel 1-1, Dusty Boehm 1-minus 1, Nicholas Seng 1-minus 3. Hurley, Cole Huotari 11-96, Nick Fink 8-70, Jake Tenlen 4-69, Devin Czerneski 11-66, Jacob Saari 8-59, Kris Bluse 7-58, Ronnie Nickel 1-9, James Sukanen 3-minus 15.

Passing - LHC, Colton Hetke 2-4-30-0, Jeremiah Reedy 0-1-0-1. Hurley, James Sukanen, 3-7-57-0.

Receiving - LHC, Nicholas Seng 2-30. Hurley, Nick Fink 2-36, Jake Tenlen 1-21.