Midgets upend Wykons

HURLEY — Hurley not only excelled in its first major West-PAC test, it kept conference power West Iron County out of the end zone.

Hurley upended the Wykons with an exciting 22-3 victory Friday night.

Penalties cost the Wykons, who reached the red zone on both first-half possessions but only managed a field goal. Hurley took all the momentum, scoring a touchdown with 14 seconds left in the first half and another just 3:10 into the second half for a 14-3 lead.

"To not let this team in the end zone, I think that says a lot about our defense," Hurley coach Scott Erickson said.

Hurley end Tandrell Foster said, "It's big. They're a great team. We celebrate tonight. Next Friday, Calumet's coming to town. That's where our focus is headed."

There was a lot to celebrate Friday night, once they got rolling.

The Wykons received the opening kickoff and kept possession for the first 8 minutes, 10 seconds and ultimately had nothing to show for it.

West Iron's Neil Tomasoski appeared to run for the first down on a third down at the Hurley 10, but a holding call made it third and long from the 21.

He scrambled for what looked like another first down two plays later, but an illegal motion penalty negated that.

On fourth and 12, WIC got four yards and Hurley started at its own 15.

West Iron committed nine penalties for 55 yards on the night. West Iron wasn't making big plays, rather getting consistent yardage — runs of 3 to 9 yards — every down. It's hard to make up for penalties in that scenario.

"Penalties killed us tonight," WIC coach Mike Berutti said. "You can't do that. You take the ball, you drive right down, get a couple penalties, it keeps us out of the end zone.

"Hurley's a good football team. You can't make those types of mistakes. ... It's like everytime we had something, we'd shoot ourselves in the foot."

The Midgets were forced to punt on the next possession as Hurley struggled with penalties themselves.

West Iron appeared poised for a touchdown on another long drive.

Austin Persson broke free for a 19-yard gain to the Hurley 24 and that's when the Midgets' D tightened. WIC got as far as the 18, but lost a yard on third down and settled for a 36-yard field goal by Tomasoski.

WIC led 3-0 with 3:54 left in the half.

"That's kind of been our M.O.," Erickson said. "We let them down, but we stop them inside the red zone. We're stopping teams inside that red zone. That's the whole key to the deal is make sure you don't them get in that end zone."

Hurley's Kris Bluse returned the ensuing kick to their own 46. The Midgets converted a third down with a 17-yard rush by Devin Czerneski to the 19. Tim Buerger went 8 yards to the 1 on a fourth and short.

Buerger finished it with a 1-yard TD run with 14 seconds left. Bluse caught a pass from Isaac DeCarlo for the conversion and 8-3 lead.

West Iron tried a desperation pass after it received the kick, but Scott Subert intercepted it. He wasn't able to bring it all the way back, but that seemed to fire up the Midgets even more heading into halftime.

The end of the half "really changed the momentum for us," Buerger said. "It really made a difference for our backfield and our line. They really kicked it in. I tell you what, they were blocking like champions."

The Midgets came out of halftime and scored just three minutes, 10 seconds into the half when Czerneski rushed seven yards to cap a six-play, 53-yard drive that included a negative play and one with no gain.

The conversion failed, but Hurley led 14-3.

"That was a good momentum boost going into the half and then we took it right out of half and scored," Erickson said. "That was really the setup."

West Iron started the ensuing possession by committing two motion penalties and a third was declined. They had to punt.

Hurley wasn't able to take advantage, punting after a three-and-out. West Iron took it to the Hurley 35 on its next drive, but it couldn't convert on fourth down early in the fourth quarter.

The Midgets kept possession for the next seven minutes, icing the game with an 11-play, 69-yard drive finished by another touchdown.

Facing fourth and 1 on their own 40 right off the bat, Buerger picked up the yard they needed.

"That's just what we do," Erickson said of his decision to go for it. "My team didn't didn't have any hesitation about it. It was a big play made by the nose of the ball."

After two empty runs, DeCarlo found Ryley Eitrem for a 39-yard pass. Four plays later, Buerger ran for his second touchdown of the day, from six yards out. DeCarlo's conversion run made it 22-3 Hurley with 4:38 left.

"Really proud of our guys tonight, how they played," Erickson said. "They mentally prepared well. They were there physically. We took away the big plays from them."

West Iron kept possession so long in the first half, Hurley only had the ball twice before halftime. That put pressure on them to score with that final possession, which they did.

"It was a reminiscent battle to the Lake Linden-Hubbell days when it was two possessions a half," Erickson said. "We made the most of ours and I'm really proud of how the kids played."

Hurley (3-0) outrushed WIC (1-1) 196-158 and was led by Czerneski's 98 yards.

Austin Persson and Austin Giuliani both had 53 yards for WIC.

Berutti said his young team has to do a better job of finishing and he expects it will come as the season progresses.

"We missed a couple open receivers. We've got a young group in the backfield. We've got some kids that aren't playing right now," Berutti said. "There were some positives. I thought we showed some really good things."

West Iron County 0 3 0 0 — 3

Hurley 0 8 6 8 — 22

First Quarter

No scoring

Second Quarter

WIC — Neil Tomasoski 36 field goal, 3:54

Hur — Tim Buerger 1 run (Kris Bluse from Isaac DeCarlo), :14

Third Quarter

Hur — Devin Czerneski 6 run (run failed), 8:50

Fourth Quarter

Hur — Buerger 6 run (DeCarlo run), 4:36

WIC Hur

First downs 10 11

Rushes-yards 37-158 38-196

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

Passing 53 40

Total yards 211 236

Penalties-yards 9-55 5-30

Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0

Individual statistics

Rushing — West Iron County, Austin Persson 12-53, Austin Giuliani 11-53, Shae Parson 12-49, Neil Tomasoski 2-3. Hurley, Devin Czerneski 14-98, Tim Buerger 15-65, Isaac DeCarlo 3-21, Kris Bluse 4-9, Alex Czarnecki 1-0.

Passing — WIC, Neil Tomasoski 3-7-53-1. Hurley, Isaac DeCarlo 2-3-40-0.

Receiving — WIC, Austin Persson 1-26, A.J. Weisnicht 1-23, Austin Giuliani 1-4. Hurley, Ryley Eitrem 1-38, Devin Czerneski 1-2.