Northstars win 1st 8-player game

By JASON JUNO

sports@yourdailyglobe.com

Hurley — Lake Linden-Hubbell hasn’t been playing 8-player football for years and years, but the Lakes and coach Brett Gervais have found plenty of success in those four seasons, which was capped by reaching the state semifinal last year.

So when Gervais complimented Hurley’s 8-player offense after the Northstars’ first game in this format, that means something. Hurley beat his Lakes 36-20 Thursday and it appears the Northstars are going to be a strong 8-player team after being so good in the 11-player ranks for decades.

“They came out and ran a spread offense really well,” Gervais said. “They did a nice job being patient in the backfield, sticking to the game plan. When they had space, they executed the 8-man game well. Making the transition from 11-man to 8-man is slightly different, and I thought No. 5 back there, he ran really, really well. He was patient and he was tough to contain.”

It, of course, doesn’t hurt having an athlete like No. 5, Devin Soltis, to make the transition go more smoothly. He carried it 22 times for 157 yards and three touchdowns.

Hurley coach Scott Erickson said an 8-player football related comment means something coming from Lake Linden.

“We’re working on it and we’re blessed to have some guys that can run and be matchup problems,” Erickson said of Hurley’s offense. “We’re going to try and maybe take a little more advantage of that going forward.”

Soltis definitely had some help.

Wyatt Hall scored Hurley’s first touchdown, running 64 yards midway through the first quarter to open the scoring. Lake Linden-Hubbell countered with a 66-yard touchdown run by quarterback Brady Axford to tie the game at 6-6 late in the first quarter.

Soltis put Hurley back in front less than two minutes into the second quarter, running 13 yards to paydirt for a 12-6 lead.

Jack Rowe recovered a bad snap at the Lakes’ 37 on the ensuing possession. Five plays later, Soltis was in the end zone again, this time from six yards out. Brodie Erickson caught the conversion pass from Rowe for a 20-6 Hurley lead.

LL-H started on the Hurley 49 on the next possession and they were able to score in just four plays. Josh Daavettila ran 35 yards for the score midway through the second quarter.

It remained 20-12 at halftime.

Soltis threw a touchdown pass to Wyatt Hall to start the second-half scoring. His 18-yard pass came 2:43 into the half. A two-point pass from Rowe to Wyatt Hall made it 28-12.

Rowe intercepted a pass on the Lakes’ next possession inside the LL-H 25. On the second play of the drive, Soltis ran 23 yards for his third rushing TD of the day. He also ran in the conversion to make it 36-12.

The Lakes stuck one in late in the fourth quarter to end Hurley’s second-half shutout, but the game overall proved to be a fine defensive effort for the Northstars.

“I think we tackled pretty well, so I was pretty pleased with that,” Erickson said. “I think we have to do a little bit better job of getting off some blocks, particularly at the first level, d-line level. When we did get off, we were OK. We took a little while to warm up and I think, second half, we played really good defense.”

The Northstars are hoping to take advantage of their speed on defense this year and be one of the top defensive teams in their league, the Northwoods-East.

Gervais was impressed with their defense, too.

“They ran some gaps and gave us problems offensively,” he said. “Again, they have guys, they play fast and they tackle really well in the open field. We had plays where our running backs were hitting the second level and then stopped for a 10-yard gain and not a 50-yard touchdown. So I thought their linebackers and their safeties came up, even on special teams and kickoffs, and made nice open-field tackles and just being fundamentally sound.”

The teams put up similar numbers offensively with LL-H actually outrunning the Northstars 263-256. But they also had two big turnovers that Hurley turned into touchdowns.

Those types of mistakes made it tough for Gervais’s young team, which lost some great talent off of the state semifinal team. This team has some solid players — Daavettila ran for 154 yards and Axford 109 — but there’s going to be some growing pains.

“Our guys are prepared to play at a high level, but we understand there are going to be mistakes. First game of the year, we knew it was going to happen,” Gervais said. “I told them on the bus at halftime, ‘Let the bleeding stop now, let’s figure it out,’ and ultimately there were some mistakes in the second half that cost us big plays in the end.”

Erickson said the Lakes were big and tough to move up front.

“We just had a little bit more speed tonight,” he said.

That’s something he might be saying a lot this year.

Up next is a Saturday afternoon road trip to Prentice for a 1 p.m. game.

Both schools went to 8-player football at the same time; Prentice-Rib Lake was in the same Lakeland Conference as Hurley the last few years and they split into two separate 8-player teams. Hurley plays Rib Lake later this season.

Prentice also opened the season with a win, 36-24 over South Shore. Jonas Staroba rushed for 128 yards on 11 carries and two touchdowns.

“It’s 8-man stuff — gun stuff, motion, so they’re trying to get to seals and get to the outside,” Erickson said.

LL-H 6 6 0 8 - 20

Hurley 6 14 16 0 - 36

First Quarter

Hur – Wyatt Hall 64 run (run failed), 6:29

LLH – Brady Axford 66 run (run failed), 1:41

Second Quarter

Hur – Devin Soltis 13 run (run failed), 10:14

Hur – Soltis 6 run (Brodie Erickson pass from Jack Rowe), 7:42

LL-H – Josh Daavettila 35 run (run failed), 5:59

Third Quarter

Hur – Wyatt Hall 18 pass from Soltis (Wyatt Hall pass from Rowe), 9:17

Hur – Soltis 23 run (Soltis run), 5:34

Fourth Quarter

LL-H – Isaac Johnson 17 pass from Axford (Daavettila run), 3:00

LLH Hur

First downs 6 6

Rushes-yards 33-263 32-256

Comp-Att-Int 2-9-1 1-3-0

Passing 22 18

Total yards 285 274

Penalties-yards 5-35 6-35

Fumbles-lost 5-1 2-1

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – LL-H, Josh Daavettila 27-154, Brady Axford 16-109. Hurley, Devin Soltis 22-157, Wyatt Hall 2-66, Jack Rowe 8-33.

PASSING – LL-H, Brady Axford 2-8-22-1, Josh Daavettila 0-1-0-0. Hurley, Devin Soltis, 1-3-18-0.

RECEIVING – LL-H, Blake Lebo 1-5, Isaac Johnson 1-17. Hurley, Wyatt Hall 1-18.