Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By JASON JUNO
Bessemer — Gogebic scored five straight touchdowns in the middle of the game to run away from Ironwood for a 50-12 win Friday night.
The Miners beat their archrivals for the first time since they both became 8-player programs in 2021. Ironwood won the first three meetings, including a come-from-behind 34-30 win a year ago.
“The kids had this marked on their calendar since last year,” Gogebic coach Nick Heikkila said.
The Miners finished above .500 for the first time as an 8-player team and just missed an MHSAA playoff berth. They were the second team out.
“.152,” Heikkila said. That’s the tiny amount the Miners trailed the final playoff team in the playoff point system the MHSAA uses to determine the 16-team Division 1 playoff field.
He termed it a successful season anyway as the Miners faced a rash of injuries while playing four teams in the top five of the U.P. 8-player poll. They were able to pick up some nice wins late in the season as they picked up their play while still missing some of their top players.
“I’m really happy with the way the season went,” Heikkila said. “A couple games, Munising and Norway, wish we had back, but that’s just the name of the game, injuries and everything. But it makes me wonder if we played those games toward the end where we’d be. But it is what it is.”
The Miners closed it out with a convincing victory over the Devils.
They got on the board first with a 46-yard run by Leland Hollenbeck. His point after made it 7-0 just 2:05 into the game.
Ironwood ate up a bunch of clock in the first quarter and scored less than a minute into the second quarter on a one-yard run by Brendan McCullough. It was 7-6 Gogebic.
“Our first drive took a lot of that first quarter away like we wanted to do — just slow the game down, keep the ball in our hands, so I thought we did a good job with that,” Ironwood coach Kevin Lane said. “Then I think we just got wore out with only eight, nine guys playing four quarters. It gets tough for sure.”
It was all Miners after that.
Owen Miljevich ran 55 yards for a Gogebic touchdown 17 seconds after that. He ran in another from four yards out to make it 21-6 later in the quarter. Bode Lynott threw their only touchdown pass of the game, a 35-yard toss to Ben Kaurala with 54 seconds left in the half, and the Miners led 28-6.
Gogebic made an adjustment defensively after Ironwood moved the ball well and controlled the clock in the first period.
“We had to make a little adjustment, make sure our guys were reading their keys and getting to the gaps,” Heikkila said. “Once we made that adjustment, we were able to keep them under wraps.”
Gogebic added two more in the third quarter, first on a 24-yard rush by Miljevich, his third of the game, and then a 25-yard run by Lynott that made it 42-6.
Ironwood answered with a 23-yard touchdown run by McCullough early in the fourth, but it was too late by then.
Gogebic’s Gabe Harju scored the final touchdown of the game on a three-yard run late in the fourth. An All-U.P. Dream Team linebacker last year, Harju missed much of his senior season due to injury and got into the end zone in his return. He saw more action on defense and special teams, but he got carries on his scoring drive.
“It’s just a shame what happened to him this season,” Heikkila said. “What could have been had he played. But it was nice to get him in there. I know they saw it coming with those first two (runs), but he was determined on that last one.”
The Miners finished with 356 rushing yards on 32 carries.
“Our offensive line definitely was a huge contributor to that,” Heikkila said.
“We struggled to stop that running game,” Lane said. “Their linemen up front did a really good job opening up holes and then their backs did a good job running away from us.”
Miljevich led with 172 yards on a dozen carries, Hollenbeck had 103 on eight carries and Lynott 77 on nine carries.
“He’s just a tough kid,” Heikkila said of Miljevich. “He’s got some speed, he’s shifty, he’s got great balance, a unique style of running, running straight up and down. He amazes me with people bouncing off of him and just keeping his feet, trying to get that extra yard, extra inch every play.”
The Miners finished with a 5-4 record and say goodbye to a talented group of seniors, including Lynott who had a fantastic year at the quarterback position, Harju, Wyatt Aspinwall, Cooper Anderson, Patrick Perron, Ben Kaurala and Tanner LaMaide. They have a number of good players returning, though, also. Just missing the playoffs makes them hungrier for next season, Heikkila said.
“We’re going to really miss the seniors obviously,” he said. “We’re looking to reload and hopefully we don’t let it be a question for playoffs next year.”
Ironwood dealt with a lot of injuries as well, but their roster was small to begin with. They finished with a 2-7 record but still played well in tough losses to Ontonagon and Lake Linden-Hubbell.
“Frustrating one no doubt,” Lane said of the season. “I know the kids were frustrated as well. But super proud of the guys for (finishing it out). We lost a few of our big weapons right away. We were without them for the majority of the season. And then our low numbers as well. Just super proud of the guys who stuck with us all season long.”
Ironwood missed quarterback Nick Miskovich and running back Ethan Gallo, two key pieces who missed a lot of time.
“We missed (Miskovich), big, explosive guy,” Lane said. “And then Ethan Gallo had a really great start to the year, was really super excited to see all that work he’s put in over the last couple years in the weight room over the offseason pay off and then unfortunately, an injury there. He’s taken steps to recover, so super glad to hear everything’s going well for him.”
McCullough, who stepped into the quarterback role, rushed for 50 yards and two touchdowns and threw for 143 yards Friday night.
“He really picked up quick on it. He did a lot of good things for us there, so excited to have him back for next year,” Lane said. “Hopefully we can stay a little healthier as well. Definitely going to miss our four seniors, three of which played all four years for us, so special group no doubt.”
The seniors are Evan Oja, Landon Buerger, Sol Lagalo and Gage Mullikin.
Ironwood 0 6 0 6 — 12
Gogebic 7 21 14 8 — 50
First Quarter
Gog — Leland Hollenbeck 46 run (Hollenbeck kick), 9:55
Second Quarter
Iwd — Brendan McCullough 1 run (failed), 11:17
Gog — Owen Miljevich 55 run (Hollenbeck kick), 11:00
Gog — Miljevich 4 run (Hollenbeck kick), 4:57
Gog — Ben Kaurala 35 pass from Bode Lynott (Hollenbeck kick), :54
Third Quarter
Gog — Miljevich 24 run (Hollenbeck kick), 7:51
Gog — Lynott 25 run (Hollenbeck kick), 4:58
Fourth Quarter
Iwd — McCullough 23 run (failed), 11:04
Gog — Gabe Harju 3 run (Eli Hewitt pass from Lynott), 3:37
Iwd Gog
First downs 8 8
Rushes-yards 30-88 32-356
Comp-Att-Int 5-18-0 2-2-0
Passing 55 48
Total yards 143 404
Penalties-yards 4-30 6-55
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Ironwood, Brendan McCullough 20-50, Landon Buerger 9-39, Evan Oja 1-minus 1. Gogebic, Owen Miljevich 12-172, Leland Hollenbeck 8-103, Bode Lynott 9-77, Gabe Harju 3-4.
PASSING — Ironwood, Brendan McCullough 5-18-143-0. Gogebic, Bode Lynott 2-2-48-0.
RECEIVING — Ironwood, Nick Miskovich 3-35, Evan Oja, 2-20. Gogebic, Ben Kaurala 1-35, Leland Hollenbeck 1-13.
