Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By JASON JUNO
MARQUETTE — Ontonagon’s dynamic duo of Austin Gordon and Caden Besonen was selected to the All-U.P. Dream Team at Monday’s 75th meeting of the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
Gogebic’s Wyatt Aspinwall and Leland Hollenbeck were All-U.P. First Team selections while several area athletes were either special or honorable mention.
Gordon, selected at one of two hybrid spots, finished his senior season with 2,394 passing yards and 27 touchdowns. He also ran for 387 yards and nine scores.
“He’s one of our senior captains, a coach’s dream athlete and the definition of a leader at quarterback,” Ontonagon coach Kadin Mustafa said.
Besonen was selected at wide receiver after finishing his senior season with 2,016 all-purpose yards and 24 touchdowns. He recorded 1,201 receiving yards, 491 rushing yards and 324 return yards.
“The stats speak for themselves,” Mustafa said. “When the ball is in his hands, any play has the potential to go the distance. He also is the definition of a leader and I go so far as to say not many athletes put the kind of work in this off-season that he did and he truly showed hard work paid off.”
Aspinwall was selected at defensive back. After missing the first two games, he finished with 76 tackles (47 solo, five for a loss), three sacks, two interceptions, nine passes batted down, one forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
“Wyatt was our leader on defense when (Gabe) Harju went down,” Gogebic coach Nick Heikkila said. “He stepped up big to lead our defense in solo tackles and total tackles. He averaged 10.8 tackles per game.
“This kid has a nose for the ball and always seemed to find his way ripping the ball away from receivers or just reading the defense plugging the hole.
“Wyatt was looked to by coaches and players to keep the intensity up and to hype the team up. He was very effective with this.”
Hollenbeck was the First Team kicker.
He went 26 of 28 on extra points and kicked a 27-yard field goal. He averaged nearly 40 yards on 45 kickoffs. He didn’t start kicking extra points and field goals until week four.
“I wish I would have made the change earlier, but he was a huge part of the win versus Lake Linden in putting us up two scores with his 27-yard field goal,” Heikkila said. “Leland has been automatic when it comes to kicking for us.”
State finalists Pickford and Crystal Falls Forest Park won most of the major awards and combined for 10 Dream Team selections.
Forest Park plays Morrice in the Division 2 state final, while Pickford meets Deckerville in the D-1 final. Both games are Saturday at the Superior Dome in Marquette with the D-1 final at 10 a.m. CST and the D-2 game at 1 p.m.
They were both U.P. Team of the Year in their division with Pickford’s Josh Rader Coach of the Year in D-1 and Forest Park’s Brian Fabbri winning the D-2 award.
Pickford’s Tommy Storey won the Offensive Player of the Year award. Storey threw for 1,355 yards and ran for 898 yards through their first 11 games.
Newberry’s Matt Rahilly took the Defensive Player of the Year award. He tallied 104 tackles with three interceptions, one for a touchdown, and three forced fumbles.
North Central’s Lane Gorzinski was named the U.P.’s Mr. Football. The senior has been a nightmare for area teams to bring down in recent years. He finished his senior season with 1,821 rushing yards on 152 carries while throwing for 731 yards and 11 touchdowns with just one interception. Five of his eight catches were for touchdowns. He also was an excellent linebacker with 65 tackles (18 for a loss), six sacks, four fumble recoveries and three interceptions.
Two Miners were named special mention, which requires at least two votes by the panel.
Gogebic senior quarterback Bode Lynott came up just a single vote shy of a First Team spot. He rushed for 14 touchdowns and threw for seven more.
Lynott has started full time since seeing spot duty in that role as a freshman for the Miners.
“Bode is the heartbeat of our program,” Heikkila said. “At 5-8, 160, Bode played with a great amount of determination. Not the fastest one out there, but always seemed to find the seam and do some amazing work for us. He was our leader at practice and in the weight room. He attended camps to perfect his craft.”
The Miners just missed the playoffs with a 5-4 record while fighting through a rash of injuries early in the season and a schedule that included four ranked teams.
“He was at the bottom of the barrel when we first started our 8-man program, to quite a successful season, 5-4, and just missing the playoffs by .152 (playoff points),” Heikkila said.
His best game was a big 56-21 win over Ontonagon in which he rushed for 153 yards and five touchdowns and threw for another.
Gogebic’s Cooper Anderson was special mention on the offensive line.
He finished with 13 pancake blocks, and just two sacks allowed on a team that rushed for 2,060 yards and threw for 714.
“Coop was the line leader,” Heikkila said. “He knows each OL position’s job and made all the calls for us. He was trusted to make these calls and was very successful in doing so.”
Ironwood linebacker Evan Oja was honorable mention at linebacker.
He finished the season with 49 tackles (seven for a loss), three interceptions, one for a touchdown, three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries.
“Evan was often our contain guy playing outside backer, he also dropped into coverage at times,” Ironwood coach Kevin Lane said. “As you can see with his turnovers he caused, recovered, he has a nose for the ball. He had a few momentum changing plays for us, coming up with big turnovers throughout the season. Evan was a great leader for us, both off and on the field.”
The 11-player All-U.P. football team will be released on Friday with the All-U.P. volleyball team coming out next week.
