Iron Mountain downs Norse

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Iron Mountain's Josh Pender (20) gets tackled by Suttons Bay's Craig Send Friday. Record-Eagle/JAN-MICHAEL STUMP

November 13, 2010

Mountaineers win first regional since 2000

BY MIKE ECKERT meckert@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Sat Nov 13, 2010, 06:14 AM EST

SUTTONS BAY — Iron Mountain's journey to Friday's Division 6 regional championship game included an 8-hour bus ride and a change in time zones.

It was a trip worth taking.

The Mountaineers handed host Suttons Bay its first loss of the season with a 41-17 victory and headed home with the school's first regional title since 2000.

"Last time we were down here we spent the night in a motel," Iron Mountain coach Scott Boddy said. "This year we decided we were just going to get up and go. It'll be a heck of a ride home, but it'll be a good trip."

The Mountaineers (11-1) left home at 8 a.m. Central Standard Time and didn't expect to be back until well into the morning Saturday.

"It was a great day," senior running back Josh Pender said. "It's awesome. I haven't experienced this since I've been in high school."

Iron Mountain had reached the regional final each of the last three seasons, but came up short against Montague each time.

Not on Friday, as the Mountaineers used a punishing style of football to knock off the Norsemen. They'll play either Montrose or Ithaca next week in the state semifinal.

"That's kind of what you fear when you go into this game," Suttons Bay coach Joe Trudeau said. "You fear they're going to pound and pound and pound. That's what they did. We've been known to be kind of small and quick. There were those situations where they line up and come at you, and there's not a lot you can do."

The Mountaineers showed their physicality late in the first half when Suttons Bay went for a touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the Iron Mountain 1-yard line. Noah Reyhl tried to run up the middle, but Mountaineers linebacker Paul Kuoppala dropped him behind the line of scrimmage to preserve the 20-10 Iron Mountain lead at the half.

"He's our MVP, the league MVP, the U.P. MVP," said Boddy of Kuoppala. "He's probably one of the best players I've coached in 20-some years. He's a good player and we're glad we have them."

"We've (previously) been able to run some unbalanced stuff and power people, but not these guys," Trudeau said. "We needed a yard, ran our best power play and didn't get it."

The Norse hadn't trailed at the half this season.

"I think these guys are pretty resilient," Trudeau said. "I don't think it bothered them to be down 10 at halftime. It would have been nice to get that punched in right before the half and only be down three. Last year as juniors they came back a lot. They knew they could do it. They just ran into a buzzsaw."

In the second half, it was all Mountaineers. Suttons Bay picked up a couple of first downs on the opening series — including Layton Korson's 20-yard run on a fake punt — but stalled at the Iron Mountain 23. A pass on fourth down sailed out of the back of the endzone for a second straight turnover of downs for the Norse.

Then the Mountaineers fired up the offense for three straight touchdowns — sandwiched between three three-and-out possessions for Suttons Bay.

Nik Flood scored the first touchdown for Iron Mountain on a 34-yard reverse while Pender notched the next two from 7 yards and 24 yards.

"Coach was telling us we needed to get hungry because we were almost done with this game," Pender said. "I just kept that in me and kept it going. We had to get it done."

Pender's 24-yard score made it 41-10 midway through the fourth quarter.

"Hats off to Suttons Bay, because it was a battle," Boddy said. "We wore them down. We had a couple of nice runs in the third quarter there. And once things start clicking, momentum starts going your way. It was a smash-mouth kind of football."

The Norsemen were able to get on the scoreboard one more time with 2 minutes to go. Suttons Bay recovered an Iron Mountain fumble and on the next play, quarterback David Horton hit Craig Send for a 53-yard score.

Suttons Bay was held to 156 yards rushing on the night.

"We knew they were going to run the ball all the time," Pender said. "That's what they've done all year. So we loaded up the box and played physical. It turned out to work."

Korson led the way for Suttons Bay with eight carries for 115 yards. He also caught five passes for 50 yards, tallied 11 tackles on defense and kicked a 29-yard field goal in the first half.

"He's been phenomenal all year," Trudeau said. "If they wanted to key on Reyhl, which they were doing, he takes over."

Reyhl had 13 carries for 46 yards. Horton was 12-for-26 passing for 186 yards while Send caught two passes for 73 yards and two touchdowns.

Defensively, Aiden Keilty — who suffered a concussion and missed most of the second half — had 11 tackles while Hudson Parrent had 10, Jacob Pryor added eight and Reyhl had two interceptions.

Pender led the Mountaineers with 21 carries for 185 yards and three touchdowns. Also in the backfield, fullback Joe Wender had eight carries for 65 yards.

"When Joe's around, we're such a better team offensively," Pender said. "He's such a horse. It opens up things for everyone else."

Alex Herman scored from short yardage for the Mountaineers while Tony Secinaro had a 35-yard touchdown run and also made three extra points

Iron Mountain won't know its opponent for the state semifinal until after today's regional game, but will go back to work at practice on Monday — the first day of firearm deer season and a day off from school.

"They moaned and groaned, but they can hunt all their lives," Boddy said.