Gladiators win another lopsided game

By JASON JUNO

sports@yourdailyglobe.com

Ontonagon — Austin Gordon and Caden Besonen lit up the scoreboard in Rapid River as the Gladiators breezed to a 72-22 win Friday night.

Gordon threw four touchdowns to Besonen and Besonen threw a 51-yard TD to him. Gordon added TD passes to Jack Nelson and Brody Bobula, he ran for two scores and Besonen rushed for one in a dominating performance by the two playmakers from Ewen-Trout Creek.

“It wasn’t how I thought it was going to go at all, but we had a couple athletes that decided to take the game over for us. So it was a pretty nice win,” Ontonagon coach Kadin Mustafa said. “They were just lighting it up.”

Gordon threw for 340 yards and Besonen caught 244 of them.

“The kids just executed the plays well,” Mustafa said. “That’s what I tell them all the time — I just draw lines on paper and they make it happen. I appreciate them and all the work that they put in. They stayed disciplined for the most part, except for one play on defense where they scored. But everyone’s got stuff to iron still, it’s still early in the season. Overall, very, very happy. If we keep that rolling, we’re going to give a lot of teams fits.”

The Gladiators outscored their first two opponents 158-22. They expect to get their toughest test of the season so far this week when they take the long trip to Newberry for a 6 p.m. EDT game.

It’s been a tough start to the season for Newberry. They lost 37-6 to Crystal Falls Forest Park, which is expected to be one of the very best teams in the Upper Peninsula, and they fell 54-28 to Climax-Scotts, a perennial power from downstate, in a game played at Gaylord.

“They look pretty crisp on film and they definitely like to come put their nose to the ball,” Mustafa said. “We’ll see what we’re made of this Friday.”

Newberry is led by Matthew Rahilly, who was named Mr. Football in the U.P. last year after rushing for 1,272 yards on 102 carries and 23 touchdowns. He also caught four TD passes, threw for five and ran back four kickoffs and one punt for touchdowns.

“We have a few athletes on our team as well, so I think we’ll be able to hopefully hold our own there,” Mustafa said. “And if our offense just keeps doing what they’re doing, we’ll be all right.”

It’s the middle of a brutal stretch of three road games. It started at Rapid River last week, continues at Newberry and ends with the farthest trip east, at Rudyard next week.

“They actually handled the bus ride pretty well,” Mustafa said of last week’s game at Rapid River. “They stayed focused for the most part, they had some good music going on, it didn’t seem to faze them really at all.”

They stay much closer to home the rest of the season.

They play twice in Ewen, and once each in Ontonagon, Ironwood and Lake Linden.