Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By JASON JUNO
Ironwood — North Central continued to proof it’s still a top-five team in the Upper Peninsula with a 50-8 victory over visiting Ironwood Friday night.
The Jets have been ranked fifth in the past two U.P. 8-player polls. They’re 4-1 this year after an 8-3 campaign last year that saw their state-record 41 game winning-steak come to end.
They might not be that dominant anymore, but they’re still plenty good.
“Super big, super fast, super athletic,” Ironwood coach Kevin Lane said. “Their defensive line was definitely very tough to stop. Coming in, we knew they were going to twist and do some stunts up front. Just how fast they were while doing it was impressive. Once they took that off, their bull rush, just quick off the ball and super strong.”
All of the Red Devils’ losses have come to teams ranked in the top five, No. 3 Munising, No. 4 Norway and now No. 5 North Central. Lane said the Jets belong up there with Munising and Norway.
“They’re right up there with them, for sure,” he said. “They play a little different style than Norway does, don’t pass as much, more physical in the trenches, so they’re a different style team, but yeah, I think they’re right up there with those other two for sure.”
Brendan McCullough threw a touchdown pass to Eli Ruotsala on Ironwood’s first drive as the Red Devils took an 8-7 lead.
McCullough finished 5 of 12 for 91 yards with a TD and an interception. Ruotsala caught four passes for 78 yards and the touchdown.
Ruotsala led Ironwood with five solo tackles. Evan Oja forced a fumble and Alec Huotari recovered it.
Ironwood was without quarterback Nick Miskovich for a second straight week and his status is still uncertain.
“It’s still up in the air right now on what will happen with Nick this week. We’re hoping so, but it’s not looking great,” Lane said.
Power running back Ethan Gallo went down with an injury in Friday night’s game. It’s a depleted Ironwood backfield.
“Losing Ethan now is a huge loss for us as well,” Lane said. “Just a physical guy, tough guy, great vision in the backfield. We’re really looking for guys to step up this week, though, next man up mentality. We can’t let a few injuries bring us down, for sure, but they are big ones.”
Ironwood (2-3) returns to Longyear Field for homecoming this week to face a dangerous Ontonagon (3-2) team that has hit a rough patch with two consecutive losses coming into this one.
“They got a couple really fast, really athletic kids,” Lane said. “Austin Gordon does a great job throwing the ball and extending the play with his legs as well. And then Caden Besonen is a great receiver for them.”
The Gladiators were shorthanded in a 50-20 loss at Rudyard two weeks ago; they were at full strength for a 56-21 loss to the Gogebic Miners Friday night in Ewen.
“I thought Gogebic did a really nice job containing the passing game. They sent some guys on a blitz, and then they covered Besonen very well, I thought,” Lane said.
Part of any game plan against the Gladiators is to keep that offense on the sideline.
“If we can slow the game down a little bit, time of possession is huge, I think, in all 8-man games,” Lane said. “It’s just tough to stop teams consistently with that extra field and less guys out there. So anytime we’re on offense is a big benefit for us for sure.”
Friday night’s game is at 6 p.m.