Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By JASON JUNO
PRENTICE, Wis. — Prentice sold out on stopping Hurley’s vaunted rushing attack. So the Northstars went to the air and passed for almost as many yards as they ran for in a 36-8 victory Saturday afternoon.
After Devin Soltis ran 55 yards for a touchdown on Hurley’s first offensive play, the Northstars had to vary their attack to move the football and it worked.
They ended with three passing touchdowns and 144 yards through the air compared to 154 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
It gives Hurley more options offensively going into a big matchup of early-season unbeatens when Flambeau comes to Hurley Friday night for a 7 p.m. Northwoods East Conference game.
“They committed to stopping the run with everybody up there and a lot of big dudes,” Hurley coach Scott Erickson said. “It forced us to go to the passing game and it was good to see the passing game responded to the tune of three touchdowns and some really good throws and catches.
“I think it makes us harder to defend when you have to defend the whole field. We’re looking for counters off of our run game. And maybe we found a few there in Prentice.”
The Northstars have the weapons to do a lot of things offensively. Soltis threw for two touchdown passes and Jack Rowe one. Wyatt Hall caught most of the passes, tallying 108 yards on five catches. His brother Ty Hall caught the other one for 36 yards. And they have a couple of other threats to throw to as well.
“We found the mismatches, similar to the Lake Linden deal (in week one),” Erickson said. “We had mismatches on our slot receivers. We’re learning as we go and the kids are learning, too. And we just have some guys that can pull those things off.”
Prentice provided a tougher test than expected after their co-op was unable to field a varsity 11-player team last year.
Even if it looked like it might be easy for Hurley early on.
Soltis intercepted a pass on a fake punt. He didn’t need to intercept it as it gave them worse field position, but it gave him a longer touchdown run. His 55-yard run and Rowe’s conversion run made it 8-0 Hurley less than two minutes into the game.
Hurley didn’t score again until the second quarter. Gavin Moore recovered a Prentice fumble at their 11-yard line. Penalties pushed them back into a fourth and 18 from the 25 and Soltis found Wyatt Hall for a touchdown. Rowe’s two-point run made it 16-0 with 7:41 left in the half.
The Northstars capitalized on another takeaway before the half. Rowe hit Ty Hall for a 36-yard touchdown with 44 seconds left in the half. Soltis threw to Brodie Erickson, another receiving threat, for the conversion and a 24-0 lead going into halftime. Wyatt Hall made a nice catch during that drive, grabbing it off his fingertips.
Hurley put the game away with two scores in the third quarter. Soltis picked up four yards before fumbling. Ty Hall picked it up and ran 40 yards untouched for the touchdown.
Soltis threw a five-yard pass to Wyatt Hall for a touchdown and a 36-0 Hurley lead late in the third quarter.
Prentice got on the board with 50 seconds left in the game.
“Pleased with the effort here today and I give Prentice a lot of credit,” Erickson said. “They had some good dudes out there today. I think they’ll have a pretty successful season.”
Hurley is hoping to have a really successful season. A win Friday night would go a long way towards that as Erickson expects this to be one of the top matchups of the season.
Flambeau beat Bruce 36-20 in its opener and it won 46-20 over Athens last week.
“Very good looking game they played against Athens. They looked pretty fast and I think we’re going to have our hands full,” Erickson said. “I thought Athens was one of the top teams in the league and they disposed of them pretty easily. We’ll see. We’re working on finding some things we think are going to work for us. We’re going to have to match their speed certainly. They look pretty good.
“They really run some good stuff, some similar stuff to what we do and some other things that they get their athletes the ball in space. That seems to be the name of this game and we’re going to have to do a good job of tackling here this week.”
Flambeau went 6-3 last season; none of those wins came against teams with winning records, though. They went to 8-player football in 2021.
The Falcons are a young team this season with only one senior.
Hurley played Flambeau in three 11-player playoff games, losing twice to Jim Leonhard’s teams in the early 2000s and winning the 2009 Level 2 game on their way to the state semifinal. Hurley scored 40 points in the second quarter on a muddy field in Tony to win in an upset. All of the games were on the road.
The weather looks warm and dry, perfect for a Friday night football game. The heat all week should help get them in shape as well.
“Exactly how it worked tonight,” Erickson said Monday.
Hurley 8 16 12 0 — 36
Prentice 0 0 0 8 — 8
First Quarter
Hur — Devin Soltis 55 run (Jack Rowe run), 10:06
Second Quarter
Hur — Wyatt Hall 25 pass from Soltis (Rowe run), 7:41
Hur — Ty Hall 36 pass from Rowe (Brodie Erickson pass from Soltis), :44
Third Quarter
Hur — Ty Hall 40 run (pass failed), 9:22
Hur — Wyatt Hall 5 pass from Soltis (run failed), 1:01
Fourth Quarter
Pre — Logan Geiger 46 run (Jonas Staroba run), :50
Hur Pre
First downs 7 8
Rushes-yards 26-154 32-137
Comp-Att-Int 6-14-1 3-12-3
Passing 144 28
Total yards 298 165
Penalties-yards 6-35 3-35
Fumbles-lost 2-0 3-1
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
PASSING — Hurley, Devin Soltis 3-5-65-0, Jack Rowe 3-9-79-1. Prentice, Adam Raab 2-10-20-2, Aidan Hause 1-2-8-1.
RUSHING — Hurley, Devin Soltis 13-94, Ty Hall 1-40, Jack Rowe 5-14, Charlie Haanen 3-4, Tristan Pylkas 3-4, Wyatt Hall 1-minus 2. Prentice, Jonas Staroba 17-64, Logan Geiger 9-67, Adam Raab 6-6.
RECEIVING — Hurley, Wyatt Hall 5-108, Ty Hall 1-36. Prentice, Aidan Hause 1-12, Logan Geiger 1-8, Conner Fox 1-8.
