GWINN — Things haven’t seemed to be going smoothly this fall for the Gwinn High School football team, for better or worse.
The Model Towns were unable to follow up on their win a week ago with a 48-0 shutout loss to Burke River Harris on Friday night at their home stadium, McCormick Field.
Gwinn opened the season with a 14-6 win after a long trip to Bridgeport in the south state, then lost 35-0 at Manistique. But Gwinn bounced back with a 33-6 win at home against L’Anth last week.
Gwynn (2-2) struggled to find a rhythm against the Broncos, who took control early and never let up, tying the game at 2-2.
“It’s hard to find anything I like about the performance.” Gwynn head coach Derek Nyquist said. “There’s nothing really good that came out of tonight, either on the field or from a coaching standpoint. The only good thing is that there were no major injuries, so I think that’s a good thing.”
Still, he wants to develop the game for the future.
“After every game, I tell my players, win or lose, the game is in the rearview mirror.” The Model Towns coach said. “When you lose like that it’s easy to sweep it under the rug, but we have to get over it. We have a game next week (Saturday) that we’ve already started preparing for and we can’t take this game back. So the message to them is, if they want to win the game at West Iron, they have to work harder next week.”
The Broncos started strong, setting the tone on the ground, as Troy Johnson scored the first touchdown just over five minutes into the game and a two-point run by quarterback Dominique Lantagne put BR-H up 8-0. Model Towns showed promise on their next drive but couldn’t keep the momentum going, getting sacked on fourth down and forcing a turnover on downs.
Gwynn’s defense briefly turned the tide by recovering a fumble late in the first quarter, but the Model Towns offense was unable to capitalize, ending the first quarter down 8-0.
The second quarter was the beginning of Gwynn’s nightmare, as the Broncos extended their lead with a 7-yard TD run followed by a 2-point conversion to make it 16-0.
With Gwynn still unable to move the ball, BR-H had an opportunity, as Johnson completed a 50-yard scoring run just before halftime to make the score 24-0.
But that wasn’t the end of the first half. The Broncos recovered an onside kick late in the second quarter and Jacob Mileski reached the end zone from 12 yards out to score another touchdown on a 2-point shot to take a 32-0 lead into halftime.
Gwynn’s defense, which was highly effective the previous week against Lance, was overwhelmed by the Broncos’ strong running game and quick offensive tempo.
Coming out of halftime, Gwynn looked to gain some momentum, but things got worse when Christian Speer scored a touchdown on the opening kickoff and Gwynn blocked a two-point shot to make it 38-0.
Gwynn’s offense showed some promise at times, as quarterback Carter Stanski found Jason Hutchens on a pass for a solid gain, but another attempt stalled out again and they were forced to punt. BR-H continued to dominate, with Mileski scoring another touchdown late in the third to make it 46-0 going into the final period.
There was little relief in the fourth quarter. BR-H nearly scored again with a drive deep into Gwynn territory, but the Model Towns defense made a crucial stop at the 2-yard line. Unfortunately, a fumbled snap on the next play resulted in a safety, making the score 48-0.
With time running out, Gwynn’s offense had the final possession but couldn’t break through.
Gwynn travels to Iron River to take on West Iron County on Saturday at 1:30 p.m., and the Broncos travel to Manistique on Friday for a 7 p.m.