Ironwood's winning streak ends against No. 4 Norway

By JASON JUNO

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Ironwood — Norway ended Ironwood’s two-game winning streak with a 60-14 victory Friday night.

The Knights entered the U.P. poll in fourth this week after the win. They’re 3-1 with their only loss coming to No. 2 Crystal Falls Forest Park.

Norway quarterback Cole Baij was 9 of 12 for 326 yards and five touchdowns. He also ran for a score. Bryce Adams scored twice and had 154 receiving yards and Owen Baij had one touchdown and 101 receiving yards.

“We expected them to throw the ball quite a bit and they sure did,” Ironwood coach Kevin Lane said. “Just struggled to defend it. Cole’s been their quarterback for a couple years now, all-conference last year, and just puts the ball where it needs to be, does a great job. And then they’ve got some fast, tall receivers that are tough to keep up with for sure.”

The Red Devils are shorthanded with quarterback Nick Miskovich down with a shoulder injury. He’ll be out this week against North Central as well. They were hoping to find out this week how long he’d be out; Lane said they’re hoping it’s just these two weeks.

“Big piece to the offense for sure, explosive guy, does really well for us, helps us out a bunch,” Lane said. “Brendan (McCullough) took over that quarterback role this past week and will do it again this week for us. I thought he did a good job back there, made some good decisions, ran the ball really hard from that position as well.”

McCullough went 4 of 10 for 54 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for 81 yards on 16 carries.

Two other players threw passes. Ethan Gallo went 2 for 2 for 42 yards and Evan Oja’s only pass was a 55-yard touchdown throw. Landon Buerger caught both touchdown passes and finished with three catches for 114 yards.

Gallo led Ironwood on the ground with 91 yards on 16 carries. Oja ran 15 yards on his only carry. Oja, Eli Ruotsala, Gallo and McCullough also caught passes.

“Offensively I thought we did OK at times. We had 320 total yards, which was pretty good I thought,” Lane said. “And it was a pretty even mix between passing and running, which was good to see, to have that balance. A couple guys really stepped up, we had four guys with over 80 yards, whether it was running, passing, receiving, whatever that may be.”

He said Oja had a great game.

“One of his best in the four years he’s been playing for us,” Lane said. “He’s continued to keep working hard, getting better and it really showed. I thought he played really well.

“Landon Buerger made a few huge plays, too, which was great to see. Two seniors playing at their best right now, which is awesome. Then we had Ethan Gallo and Brendan McCullough run really hard, I thought — both over 80 yards, so that was good to see, too.”

Ironwood faces what’s always a tough game, a matchup at North Central Friday at 6 p.m.

The Jets are not quite the unbeatable state champion level team they were when they won 41 straight games from 2020 to 2023, but they are 3-1 and they entered the U.P. 8-player poll in the fifth spot on the strength of a three-game winning streak that followed a 40-12 opening-night loss at top-ranked Pickford.

North Central has since defeated St. Ignace 58-6, Stephenson 60-8 and Rapid River 62-8. Ironwood beat Rapid River the week before 60-28.

“Another tough one with North Central,” Lane said. “Down from their previous years of their back-to-back-to-back state championship runs but still a very solid team for sure.

“They just play physical, play fast, they got some good athletes. Lane Gorzinski really runs the ball hard, plays middle linebacker as well and comes, fills very well, so we have to keep a keen eye on him for sure. Then we have to make sure we contain the other guys as well. If they get in open space, they’re pretty quick, they’re pretty fast, so we gotta keep them contained.”

Lane was an All-U.P. Dream Team selection at athlete last year. He’s not quite as fast as his cousins were, but he’s still plenty quick, Lane said.

“He’s built a little bigger, more of a power guy and, like I said, still has some good speed there as well,” Lane said.

North Central tallied 497 yards of offense with 352 coming on the ground. Gorzinski rushed for 151 yards on four carries and threw for 59 yards. He also had eight tackles.

This week’s game is Ironwood’s first Great Lakes Eight West Conference game and the rest of their games going forward are conference games. Ironwood went 2-2 in their non-conference slate.