Midgets outlast Miners

BESSEMER - Hurley's potent rushing attack was too much for a shorthanded Gogebic Miners squad as the Midgets won the non-conference meeting 42-6 Friday night.

The Midgets rushed 55 times for 455 yards and had 21 first downs to five for the Miners as Hurley improved to 8-0 against the Bessemer/Wakefield-Marenisco co-op.

"Hurley, they're a good team," Gogebic coach Mark Movrich said. "They've been the program of consistency on the Range for Lord knows how many years. Even had we been 100 percent healthy, we know we would have been in for a dogfight. That didn't make things any easier."

Hurley (6-2) showed no ill effects from last week's heartbreaking 47-40 loss to Hancock.

"Pleased with how we bounced back for sure," Hurley coach Scott Erickson said.

The game didn't start out well for either team. Hurley's Josh Quello picked off a pass on Gogebic's (1-6) first possession and Jason Turula recovered a fumble on Hurley's ensuing possession.

The Midgets stuffed Gogebic on the next drive, though. Tandrell Foster gave Hurley its second sack of Gogebic quarterback Luke Zielinski on fourth down to give Hurley the ball on its own 46. (Kyle Osterman-Seeley recorded a sack on the first play of the game.)

Hurley's pass rush forced three sacks (the other by Mitchell Hissa and Ryley Eitrem) and two interceptions, with the other by Eitrem.

"We've been working on pass rush," Erickson said. "That was a focus because two weeks we haven't got a lot of rush. but I thought we did (against Gogebic). We worked drills on that all week. Defensively to get pass rushes, that's crucial. And coach (Paul) Jurakovich sent a lot more linebacker blitzes today, too."

Gogebic ended up 4 for 10 through the air. Besides Hurley's pass rush, the Miners were forced to play offensively without standout running back Shane Cole because of injury.

"We had some success on some of the passes," Movrich said. "There were some plays maybe if we could have got Luke (Zielinski) a second more, I thought we had some big plays developing. With Shane not in there offenisively, you take one guy and put him in one spot and then you weaken another spot. But we battled hard and I was really pleased to see that."

After sacking Gogebic on fourth down midway through the first quarter, it took Hurley two plays to get on the scoreboard as Devin Czerneski broke for a 54-yard score. Tim Buerger made all six extra points for Hurley and the Midgets led 7-0 after his first went through the uprights on a very windy and cold night.

After all that happened on the games' first three drives, Hurley came out of it with the momentum instead of upset-minded Gogebic.

"Had we been able to then pick up a first down, sustain a drive and get a score, it would have went a long way as far as emotion wise, but in the end, it almost seemed like they just wore us down," Movrich said.

Hurley forced a Gogebic three and out and scored on the following drive when Buerger went four yards for the first of two touchdowns for him.

The Midgets led 14-0 after the first quarter.

Hurley extended its lead to three touchdowns when Kris Bluse capped a 64-yard drive with a five-yard run.

The Miners scored their only touchdown when Brayden Tomes broke free for a 62-yard run. That made it 21-6 Hurley.

Hurley scored on its next drive as well with quarterback Isaac DeCarlo running in from four yards out for a 28-6 Hurley lead after Buerger's PAT kick.

Hurley got the ball back with 1:46 left in the first half. On the final play of the half, Gogebic stopped ballcarrier Buerger, who tossed it to Eitrem, who was tackled at the 5.

The Midgets added two more touchdowns in the second half, on a five-yard run by Buerger and a two-yard rush by Bluse.

Czerneski led Hurley with 148 yards on 11 carries. Buerger had 103 yards on 15 carries.

Brayden Tomes led Gogebic with 68 yards on 10 carries. Bailey Ribich caught all four Gogebic completions for 54 yards.

Hurley 14 14 14 0 - 42

Gogebic 0 6 0 0 - 6

First Quarter

Hur - Devin Czerneski 54 run (Tim Buerger kick), 5:31

Hur - Buerger 3 run (Buerger kick), 2:18

Second Quarter

Hur - Kris Bluse 5 run (Buerger kick), 8:28

Gog - Brayden Tomes 62 run (pass failed), 7:35

Hur - Isaac DeCarlo 4 run (Buerger kick), 3:30

Third Quarter

Hur - Buerger 5 run (Buerger kick), 9:11

Hur - Bluse 2 run (Buerger kick), 2:09

Hur Gog

First downs 21 5

Rushes-yards 55-455 26-82

Comp-Att-Int 3-5-0 4-10-2

Passing 83 54

Total yards 538 136

Penalties-yards 3-15 1-5

Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0

Individual statistics

Rushing - Hurley, Devin Czerneski 11-148, Tim Buerger 15-103, Kris Bluse 10-77, Isaac DeCarlo 6-58, Bailey Sivula 6-40, Scott Subert 2-21, Alex Czarnecki 1-10, Josh Quello 2-0, Dakota Haanen 2-minus 2. Gogebic, Brayden Tomes 10-68, Bailey Ribich 7-17, Jacob Suzik 4-11, Luke Zielinski 5-minus 14.

Passing - Hurley, Isaac DeCarlo 2-4-67-0, Alex Czarnecki, 1-1-16-0. Gogebic, Luke Zielinski, 4-10-54-2.

Receiving - Hurley, Tim Buerger 1-44, Tandrell Foster 1-23, Scott Subert 1-16. Gogebic, Bailey Ribich 4-54.