Northstars clinch 27th straight playoff berth

By JASON JUNO

sports@yourdailyglobe.com

Hurley — The home crowd roared as loud as it has all season as Hurley looked to get a stop and secure a win Friday night. When they got it, the two Northstars in on the sack jumped off the ground and led the enthusiastic celebration amongst the players.

After the clock went to zero not too long after that, no player was more emotional than Brodie Erickson, because who else would know better than him how important a win that really was.

The Northstars extended their remarkable run of playoff appearances to 27 straight years with an exhilarating, and certainly tense, 18-14 victory over Rib Lake in a must-win game Friday night to keep their season alive.

Brodie quickly found his dad, Scott Erickson, who has been the head coach for every one of the 27, and gave him a hug.

“We do it for my Dad, he did it for us,” Brodie, a senior outside linebacker after so many years as the Northstars’ manager. “Our coaches are with us all the way through and we’re with them. Can’t do it without the team. We play so good together; ever since fourth grade, we’ve been in it together.”

It took a long Friday night to secure the huge win.

First, the referees did a doubleheader and the game didn’t start until they arrived, after 8 p.m.

Then, once Hurley fell behind 14-12 early in the second half, the Northstars’ chances, and seemingly their season, kept slipping away.

They fumbled into the end zone and threw an incomplete pass on fourth down on another trip inside the 15-yard-line.

But in what certainly was their last chance, Devin Soltis, the senior that leads their dynamic offense and ended those two aforementioned drives, ran in five yards for a touchdown.

Lawrence Anderson and Jack Rowe combined to sack the Rib Lake quarterback on fourth and a million at midfield and the Hurley crowd celebrated a late-night win.

“It was as tense as it gets, for an 8-man football game,” coach Erickson said. “I’m very happy for our kids.”

He said Brodie told him afterwards, “We didn’t drop the rope dad.”

“That tells you that that playoff streak means something to them,” he said. “Obviously it means a lot to the kids. For me, it’s just consistency has always been something I’m proud of this program for and we found a way to win tonight.”

The Northstars finished the regular season at 7-1 and missed out on even one home playoff game in the super competitive and super small 16-team WIAA 8-player football playoffs.

Hurley is seeded fourth in one of the four regions, the northwest. They’ll head to undefeated Northwood-Solon Springs for a Friday night 7 p.m. matchup.

Rib Lake struck first with a first-quarter touchdown. Hurley scored twice in the second quarter on a pair of touchdown passes from Jack Rowe to Ty Hall. The second was a heck of a catch where Hall simply won the battle with the defender who nearly picked it off.

Rib Lake got the ball first in the second half and scored on its first possession. The conversion run by bruising running back Tucker Phillips made it 14-12 Rib Lake.

That narrow lead held for an uncomfortably long time. The Hurley defense held through all of the craziness that ensued and gave them a chance to win it at the end. 

Like last week against Phillips, Hurley allowed a kick recovery by Rib Lake on the ensuing kickoff.

Landon Pusakulich recovered a fumble on the second play, giving Hurley the ball back. The Northstars got all the way to the Rib Lake 4, but Soltis fumbled it trying to reach for the end zone and the ball went out of the end zone, giving Rib Lake a touchback.

Hurley forced a punt. They then had fourth and 2 at the RL 13 and Soltis threw incomplete to end the drive early in the fourth quarter.

“I kept looking at the clock and it kept going down and down. I got nervous,” Brodie said. 

Hurley forced another punt and finally put together the scoring drive to win the game and get them in the playoffs.

They went 80 yards in nine plays and Soltis capped it with a five-yard touchdown run with 1:54 left.

“I knew after that, both of those things, I had to come back and do something,” Soltis said.

Rib Lake got to midfield when the drive stalled. On fourth and 19, Anderson and Rowe combined for the big sack.

“I just read the tight end, I figured it was a pass, I blew up the tight end, got him, got the quarterback,” Rowe said.

Hurley went into a satisfying victory formation.

“It was really intense, it was a dogfight,” Soltis said. “Everyone was hurting, we didn’t give up.”

It certainly wasn’t easy to get the win.

“We found a way to chop it away numerous times and then found a way to score,” coach Erickson said. “I give our kids a ton of credit for hanging in there. We found some stuff working. And when we didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot, we weren’t too bad, but we shot ourselves in the foot again tonight against a good Rib Lake team. Kudos to those kids, they had a great year, probably nobody expected that out of them.”

Hurley held Rib Lake (5-3) to 14 points after they had been scoring nearly 50 points per game.

“That was the best defense we played all year against some really good running backs,” coach Erickson said.

Now Hurley hopes to keep the season going. They’ll have to find a way to slow down Northwood-Solon Springs’ Jared Schultz, who has rushed and thrown for more than 1,000 yards. He’s 59 of 113 through the air for 1,147 yards, 17 touchdowns and just three picks. On the ground, he’s carried it 105 times for 1,258 yards (12 a carry) and 25 touchdowns. Their next closest runner has 324 yards.

“They got a talented team over at Northwood, and one really talented athlete at quarterback,” Erickson said. “We’re going to have a devil of a time containing him, but I like the way we’re playing right now.”

Hurley finished with just one loss to a good Phillips team and finished second place in the strong Northwoods East Conference. But that wasn’t enough to get Hurley higher than the lowest seed in its region. 

“Ain’t that something,” Erickson said. “I don’t have the power to control that, all we can do is prepare for the teams that are in front of us. I like where we’re sitting, we’re just going to have to win it on the road.”

In the other region game, two-loss Clayton got a higher seed and will go to No. 2 Siren. If Hurley wins Friday night, it will play the winner of that game.

The seeding process as a whole generated enough questions around the state that the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association issued a statement saying it will discuss what to do about it going forward.

“There’s a lot of people complaining,” Erickson said. “I don’t know how you’re rated below teams that have worse records than you.”

That won’t change anything for this year, though, as Hurley looks to emerge from a tough four-team grouping into a state semifinal.

“I think they’re all capable, but I don’t think there’s anybody that really stands out that, ‘Oh, you’re going to have to beat this team,’” Erickson said. “I think anyone of them gets hot, stays on a run, stays healthy, has a chance to get there.”

Rib Lake  6  0  8  0 — 14

Hurley  0  12  0  6 — 18

First Quarter

RL — Talon Scheithauer 7 run (pass failed), 4:54

Second Quarter

Hur — Ty Hall 59 pass from Jack Rowe (run failed), 10:05

Hur — Hall 20 pass from Rowe (run failed), :43

Third Quarter

RL — Scheithauer 17 run (Tucker Phillips run), 8:47

Fourth Quarter

Hur — Devin Soltis 5 run (run failed), 1:54

RL Hur

First downs  13  12

Rushes-yards  49-266  35-227

Comp-Att-Int  1-7-2  4-9-0

Passing  10  130

Total yards  276  357

Penalties-yards  7-60  7-40

Fumbles-lost  1-1  2-2

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Rib Lake, Talon Scheithauer 21-130, Tucker Phillips 22-113, Logan Schmittfranz 6-23. Hurley, Devin Soltis 24-169, Wyatt Hall 3-31, Jack Rowe 8-27.

PASSING — Rib Lake, Talon Scheithauer 1-7-10-2. Hurley, Jack Rowe 2-7-79-0, Devin Soltis 2-2-51-0.

RECEIVING — Rib Lake, Tucker Phillips, 1-10. Hurley, Ty Hall 2-79, Wyatt Hall 1-41, Jack Rowe 1-10.

8-player football playoff schedule

No. 4 Hurley at No. 1 Northwood-Solon Springs

No. 3 Clayton at No. 2 Siren

— — —

No. 4 Wausaukee at No. 1 Lena/Saint Thomas Aquinas

No. 3 Wabeno-Laona at No. 2 Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah

— — —

No. 4 Port Edwards at No. 1 Owen-Withee

No. 3 Wausau Newman Catholic at No. 2 Chippewa Falls McDonell Catholic

— — —

No. 4 Oakfield at No. 1 Highland

No. 3 Almond-Bancroft at No. 2 North Crawford