MANISTIQUE – A physical running attack and dominant defense led the Manistique football team to a 35-0 win over Gwinn on Friday night.
The Emeralds scored on Aiden Osterhout’s 37-yard touchdown run with 2:08 left in the first quarter. “I found a good opening and was able to score.” Osterhout said.
The Emeralds scored again with 7:21 left in the second quarter on an 8-yard touchdown run by junior Jace Goudreau to extend Manistique’s lead to 12-0. “It was good to come back from a tough loss last week.” Goudreau said.
On the next attempt, Model Towns quarterback Carter Stanski was intercepted.
The Emeralds quickly drove down the field and scored again on a 13-yard run by sophomore Mac Pugh to give the Emeralds an 18-0 lead. “We came into this game wanting to come back.” Pugh said. “We knew we were better than the team that played East Jordan last week, so we wanted to play and win.”
On Gwynn’s next possession, Stanski was sacked by Carter Lovinge at the 1-yard line for fourth down. On fourth down, punter Jason Hutchens’ snap went over his head for a safety and the Emeralds led 20-0 at halftime. “We got all over the ball defensively tonight.” “We’re just trying to be great,” Emeralds coach Steve Pugh said. “We made some pretty good tackles. There’s always room for improvement, but I was happy with our effort tonight.”
The only points of the third quarter came on a safety, as Gwynn threw a screen pass that failed to beat the face of the goal, giving the Emeralds a 22-0 lead.
With 11 minutes, 54 seconds left in the game, Manistique found the end zone again on a 2-yard touchdown run by Masin Tryon, who also made the extra point to give the Emeralds a 29-0 lead.
With 7:18 left in the fourth quarter, LaVine took a handoff to his left and scored on a 13-yard touchdown run for the Emeralds.
The Emeralds rushed the ball 34 times for 250 yards. Goudreau led the team with 15 rushes for 94 yards and one touchdown, while Mac Pugh rushed 10 times for 66 yards and one touchdown.
Defensively, the Emeralds allowed -7 yards on 23 rushing attempts and forced three turnovers, turning two of them into touchdowns.
The Emeralds are scheduled to be in action again on Friday with a trip to Iron Mountain.
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