Missed opportunities cost Devils in loss to Mustangs

By JASON JUNO

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Ironwood - Missed opportunities in the first half cost Ironwood as Munising took the 48-14 season-opening win Thursday at Longyear Field.

The Red Devils led 14-12 at halftime, but it could have been a bigger lead. Munising pulled within two points with a touchdown as the first-half clock expired. They rode the momentum into the second half, scoring first and coming up with a stop on Ironwood's next possession.

"Even though we played OK, I still think we could have played better even in that first half," Ironwood coach Kevin Lane said. "Two trips into the red zone that we didn't get any points off of, and then that late touchdown at the end of the first half. Really I was hoping, after looking at film, we had a chance to go into half 20-6 or 22-6 even at that point and we weren't able to do that.

"First game, I get it. But frustrating, we shot ourselves in the foot a few times there, hurt ourselves instead of being defeated by them, in the first half especially, just put ourselves in tough situations. That was frustrating. But it's early on, a lot we can clean up on there."

Brendan McCullough scored both of Ironwood's touchdowns. He caught a 41-yard pass from quarterback Nick Miskovich to set up his second score that made it 14-6 Ironwood.

Ironwood recovered the kick after that one but threw incomplete on fourth and goal at the Munising 9. Munising punted, but Ironwood turned it over on downs with 30 seconds left, which was just enough time for the Mustangs to drive down and score with no time remaining in the half.

Munising then scored early in the second half to take the lead. Ironwood faced a fourth down at midfield on the ensuing possession.

"We had a fourth and one on the next drive that we were going to run a quarterback sneak," Lane said. "I figured with putting Nick under center we'd have a chance at getting them to jump. We went on 2 there and we jumped like we didn't do all day. We were really disciplined when we went on 2, so I tried that. It didn't pan out, we jumped, put us in a tough spot, fourth and six, and we weren't able to convert there. Munising came down and scored again and kind of ran with the momentum there."

Miskovich led the Red Devils with 114 yards on 18 carries. He was 6 of 13 for 90 yards and no TDs or INTs. Connor Sikonia ran for 49 yards on five carries and Ethan Gallo carried it 16 times for 42 yards. Gallo also caught three passes for 23 yards.

Eli Ruotsala had a team-best 10 solo tackles plus one assisted. Evan Oja recovered a fumble and had six tackles (two solo) and McCullough also had six tackles (four solo).

"Nick ran the ball really well - really explosive kid, get him in open space and he has a chance for big gains there," Lane said. "Ethan Gallo did a really good job as well, just getting what he could. They had a pretty solid defense, d-line and linebackers, and he did a good job getting us what he could. He ran super hard, so I was happy with that as well."

Ironwood looks to build on the positive things that happened.

"Really focus on the things we need to clean up and build on the things we did well at, quite a few positives that we took away from this," Lane said. "After watching film as well, Munising's a solid team and it showed that we could hang around with them, especially if we were a little more disciplined. I think we really had a good shot there."

The Devils host Carney-Nadeau Friday at 5 p.m. C-N has struggled to field a team in recent years and they lost their opener 86-0 last week at Ontonagon.

"From what I've seen on film, they seemed pretty young," Lane said. "After watching some film, it seemed like early on turnovers really hurt them where Ontonagon scored a few defensive touchdowns early on, got the ball back after a few kicksoffs that Carney fumbled on their kick return. So I expect them to clean that up as well and play us a little tougher there on Friday as well."