Avery Bundgaard | Daily Press Rapid River’s Lucas Sundling (left) looks for room to run against Engadine while teammate Logan Hardwick (46) blocks Friday at Rapid River.

RAPID RIVER — Scout Bigger came ready to play Friday as he carried Engadine to a 38-28 regional win over Rapid River.

Bigger ran for 222 yards on 33 carries and three touchdowns including the score that that put the game out of reach with 1:10 remaining in the game.

“Bigger is a very hard running back,” said Engadine coach Howard Hood. “He runs a lot of people over. He makes them pay the price for tackling him. We had some turnovers that we can’t have but fortunately we played hard enough to win the game and Scout finished it off.”

The first quarter saw a lot of offensive action as both teams drove down and scored on each of its first two possessions.

The Rockets scored first on a 2-yard run by quarterback Brent Lundquist. The Eagles answered with a score of their own on a 1-yard run by Bigger.

Lucas Sundling broke a 46-yard run for a touchdown on the next Rapid River series but was answered by a 20-yard run by Engadine quarterback Andrew Blanchard and the Eagles led 16-14 at the end of the first quarter.

“I liked our offense all night,” said Rapid River coach Steve Ostrenga. “We made some mistakes and it’s a growing experience for everybody especially our young quarterback. He grew and hopefully he gains from it.”

Lundquist fumbled the ball on the first play of the second quarter giving the Eagle the ball on the Rockets’ 20-yard line. Bigger punched the ball in from eight yards two plays later for his second touchdown of the night.

Later in the quarter Engadine was driving into Rockets’ territory when Rapid River’s Nate Olson intercepted the ball giving the Rockets the ball on their own 12-yard line.

Rapid River took the ball the length of the field scoring on a 29-yard pass from Lundquist to Logan Hardwick cutting the deficit to 22-20 heading into halftime.

Both teams struggled to get anything going on offense after the break as both teams went scoreless in the third quarter in a second half defensive battle.

“The defense played the way they are capable of playing,” said Ostrenga. “We missed that the last couple of weeks but we brought it tonight. I applaud our guys for the effort and I applaud our seniors. I’m going to miss them.”

After Olson picked off Blanchard’s pass early in the fourth quarter the Rockets gave it right back throwing an interception to Blanchard who took the ball back 25 yards for a touchdown.

Rapid River responded with a touchdown on its next drive when Sam Orth recovered Lundquist’s fumble in the endzone to cut the Eagles’ lead to 30- 28 with 6:13 to play in the game.

The Rockets had a chance to go down the field and score later in the game but turned the ball over on downs at their own 7-yard line.

“Our defense played outstanding,” said Hood.

“We came out slow for some reason in the first quarter but they just kept on playing hard and our linebackers played well and they got the big stop there in the end.”

Bigger scored on the next play with 1:10 remaining to put the game out of reach.

Sundling ran the ball 20 times for 145 yards and a touchdown for the Rockets. Lundquist threw the ball 149 yards on 6-15 passing.

Blanchard was 3-7 for 39 yards through the air for the Eagles and also carried the ball eight times for 39 yards.

The summary:

Engadine 16 6 0 16 — 38

Rapid River 14 6 0 8 — 28

First quarter:

RR — Lunquist 2 run (Lunquist run), 9:30

E — Bigger 1 run (Blanchard run), 7:36

RR — Sundling 46 run (conversion failed), 6:04

E — Blanchard 20 run (Blanchard to Zdebski), 3:22

Second quarter:

E — Bigger 8 run (conversion failed), 11:27

RR — Hardwick 29 pass from Lunquist (conversion failed), 1:10

Fourth quarter:

E — Blanchard interception 25 yards (Bigger run), 10:56

RR — Orth fumble recovery (Lundquist run), 6:13

E — Bigger 7 run (Blanchard run), 1:10