Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By MATT “SWEETS” MCCARTHY
For The Globe
POWERS — Despite an early touchdown that brought the game within a point, and four quarters of physical play, the third-ranked North Central Jets prevailed, as the Gogebic Miners dropped a Great Lakes Conference matchup 40-13 Friday night at North Central High School.
After a Miners three-and-out on their opening possession of the contest, the Jets, who are two years removed from their third of three consecutive MHSAA 8-player Division 2 state championships, got into the end zone on their fourth play from scrimmage. The drive was mostly senior Lane Gorzinski carrying the pigskin, as he scored from six yards out, as well as adding a successful two-point run to give NC an early 8-0 lead.
On the ensuing possession, Gogebic moved down the field mostly behind the arm of senior signal caller Bode Lynott. At the 3:42 mark, Lynott connected down the visitors sideline with senior end Ben Kaurala for a nine-yard touchdown strike. Miners kicker Leland Hollenbeck added a successful extra point to make the score 8-7.
“They have a great passing attack,” said North Central veteran head coach Leo Gorzinski. “After their first drive, we had to shore something up or it was going to be a long night.”
Midway through the second stanza, the Miners got within field goal range for Hollenbeck. But the 25 yard attempt sailed wide right despite having more than enough distance.
On their ensuing drive, the Jets got in the red zone but a Ben Stage interception by Gogebic sophomore defensive back Jayden Verrett at the goal line appeared to stop the Jets scoring attempt. Until a roughing the passer penalty gave the ball back to the home team at the 10 yard line.
On the next play, Gorzinski scored on a 10-yard run, which seemed to take the wind out of the sails of the visiting Miners.
“The roughing the passer penalty was a huge momentum changer,” said Miners coach Nick Heikkila. “If that play had ended without the penalty, maybe we aren’t down two scores at halftime.”
On the Jets final possession of the first half, Gorzinski connected with fellow senior Aidyn Burton on a 44 yard touchdown pass to increase their lead to, 22-7, a margin they took into the locker room at halftime.
The opening kickoff of the second half was eventful to say the least. The Miners attempted an onside kick which ended up being touched by a Gogebic player less than 10 yards which made it a live ball. North Central freshman Myles Nehring picked up the ball and rumbled 49 yards, until he was tackled at the Miners four-yard line.
On the next play from scrimmage, Jets sophomore back Kaden Malone crossed the goal line to increase the NC lead to 28-7. A little over eight minutes later in the third quarter, on a fourth and eight yards to go, Gorzinski came around the left side of the line of scrimmage and sped down the home sideline for a 46 yard touchdown run, to essentially put the game out reach for the Miners at 34-7.
Midway through the fourth and final stanza, the Miners found the end zone for the second time in the game. Lynott scampered through the Jets defense for a 24-yard touchdown run to make the score, 34-13.
“Hats off to Gogebic, they played hard the whole game and brought it to our guys,” Coach Gorzinski said. “They made us work for pretty much everything we got tonight on offense.”
The Jets (7-1) finished the game with 370 total yards, with 285 coming on the ground. Gorzinski led the way with 235 yards on 20 attempts and three touchdowns.
While the Miners main source of positive yards was through the air.
Gogebic tallied 213 yards of total offense, with Lynott going 7 for 15 for 121 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
“We caused them to change some things up offensively, by how our defense played at times. I am real happy with that,” Heikkila added. “I also was happy for the offense to score on our second drive, after going three and out on our first drive.”
North Central will wrap up their regular season by traveling west on U.S. 2 to their rival, the undefeated and No. 1 ranked Crystal Falls Forest Park Trojans.
“Even though we had too many mental errors tonight, and our passing game struggled, the kids battled and we came out with a win, which I am happy about,” said Coach Gorzinski.
Gogebic 7 0 0 6 - 13
NC 8 14 12 6 – 40
First Quarter
NC: Lane Gorzinski, 6 yard run. (Gorzinski run) 8:38, 8-0.
G: Bode Lynott, 9 yard pass to Leland Hollenbeck. (Hollenbeck Kick) 3:42, 8-7.
Second Quarter
NC: Gorzinski, 10 yard run. (Kaden Malone run) 1:49, 16-7.
NC: Gorzinski pass to Aidyn Burton (Conversion failed) 0:13, 22-7
Third Quarter
NC: Malone, 4 yard run. (Conversion failed) 11:39, 28-7
NC: Gorzinski 46 yard run. (Pass Failed) 3:20, 34-7
Fourth Quarter
G: Lynott 24 yard run. (Run Failed) 7:13, 34-13
NC: Ben Stage 1 yard run. (Run Failed) 1:52, 40-13.
— — —
Gogebic (4-4) hosts archrival Ironwood for a 6 p.m. Friday night game in Bessemer.
“We gotta play stout defense definitely,” Heikkila said. “They got (Nick) Miskovich back. I don’t know if he’s going to be playing wide receiver for them just or if he’s going to be doing some quarterbacking. But either way we’ve just got to make sure we know where he’s at and have good coverage on him when he goes out on routes.”
They’ll look to keep an eye on Ironwood’s run game, which has been effective lately, and keep the pass rush on no matter if the quarterback is Miskovich or Brendan McCullough, their leading rusher in recent games.
Ironwood has won the three meetings since both teams went to 8-player football in 2021, including a 34-30 thriller last year. The Miners are obviously looking to change that trend this year.
“That’s the goal,” Heikkila said.
Gogebic is also still hoping it can possibly still get into the playoffs, even with last week’s loss to North Central, their fourth of the season. They’re currently 19th in Michigan’s point system with 16 making the playoffs.
“We’ve got that in the back of our mind a little bit, but the goal is to win out this week,” Heikkila said.
The Miners are hoping to get linebacker Gabe Harju back on the field since an injury derailed his season early on. He’s been practicing, but he wasn’t able to return yet against North Central.
Harju, an All-U.P. Dream Team linebacker last year, will likely play mostly on defense.
“We know what we’ve got with him, he’s tough as nails, he’s tough as all get out,” Heikkila said. “He wants to play.”
—Jason Juno
