Ironwood shuts out Carney-Nadeau

By JASON JUNO

[email protected]

Ironwood — Ironwood put a tough opening-week loss in the rear-view mirror with a 70-0 bounceback win over Carney-Nadeau Friday.

“That’s good for our kids, get back on a positive note,” Ironwood coach Kevin Lane said.

The Wolves didn’t have an answer for Ironwood power running back Ethan Gallo. The 5-7, 190-pound back rushed for 152 yards on just four carries. Touchdown runs of 57, 37 and 50 yards accounted for Ironwood’s first three touchdowns.

“He just runs tough,” Lane said. “His great vision, he had a couple cutbacks that were huge and that was the dealbreaker there, him being able to find those lanes, cutting back and going for six. He did a great job today.”

Athletic quarterback Nick Miskovich scored Ironwood’s next two touchdowns on runs of 35 yards and 31 yards. He ended up with 90 yards on four carries. Ironwood led 40-0 after the first quarter.

“Great vision from him today as well, just finding that cutback lane and going the distance again,” Lane said.

The Devils didn’t score again until Brayden Orlich rushed 14 yards for a third-quarter score. Orlich finished with 84 yards on 14 carries.

He ran in another touchdown in the fourth quarter between two pick-6s, an 80-yard return by Tru Lagalo and a 40-yarder by Evan Oja.

It was a part of a shutout effort by the Ironwood defense.

“It was great to see our defense gang tackling, wrapping up, staying disciplined, doing their job, which was great,” Lane said.

Ironwood is hoping to make it two wins in a row as they hit the road for the first time this season. They play at Rapid River at 5 p.m. CDT Friday.

“First time on the road this year. A longer one, we have to be able to get off the bus, play hard right away, not take us awhile to get our legs going,” Lane said.

The Rockets are 1-1 with a 36-14 win at Engadine and a 72-22 loss to Ontonagon last week.

Ontonagon has basically been Ironwood’s scout team the last couple of weeks. They played Carney-Nadeau the week before the Devils and they had Rapid River first as well.

“It’s nice to watch that film. Ontonagon spreads the ball out quite a bit just like we do, so it really helps to give us a good look, be prepared on what we think we will see on Fridays,” Lane said.

The Rockets pass often.

“They really like to send their tight ends out for pass routes — three-point stance tight ends going out for routes, so that’s something we’re going to work on, our safeties being disciplined with their eyes, having their eyes where they should be, on those tight ends, so we can stay with them,” Lane said.

Ironwood (1-1) looks to head home with a winning record.

“Very confident in what we can do on Friday,” Lane said. “Hoping for a good week of practice here. Miss today’s practice (Monday) unfortunately so we can play a JV scrimmage in Ontonagon. Lose that practice but get some live reps there so that’ll be good for them as well.”

C-N 0 0 0 0 — 0

Ironwood 40 0 8 22 — 70

First Quarter

Iwd — Ethan Gallo 57 run (Gallo run), 11:49

Iwd — Gallo 37 run (Nick Miskovich run), 8:05

Iwd — Gallo 50 run (Miskovich run), 5:35

Iwd — Miskovich 35 run (Gallo run), 3:00

Iwd — Miskovich 31 run (Brayden Orlich run), :29

Second Quarter

No scoring

Third Quarter

Iwd — Orlich 14 run, 6:40

Fourth Quarter

Iwd — Tru Lagalo 80 interception return (Orlich run), 11:17

Iwd — Orlich 4 run, 5:20

Iwd — Evan Oja 40 interception return (Landon Buerger run), 1:40

C-N Iwd

First downs 3 4

Rushes-yards 17-minus 1 24-318

Comp-Att-Int 4-10-4 0-1-0

Passing 23 0

Total yards 22 318

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Ironwood, Ethan Gallo 4-152, Nick Miskovich 4-90, Brayden Orlich 14-84, Brendan McCullough 2-minus 8.

PASSING — Ironwood, Nick Miskovich 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING — Ironwood, none.