Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Gladstone’s Cole Hansen (2) gets ready to turn the corner during a run as Gaylord’s Jonathan Noeske (44) attempts to tackle him and Gaylord’s Spencer Opperman (24) is blocked Friday at Gladstone.

GLADSTONE — The Gladstone football team showcased its grit and determination here Friday by coming back from a halftime deficit to beat the Gaylord Blue Devils 20-7.

Early in third quarter, a pass from the Braves’ Drake Forrest to Ryan Polley ended in a 36-yard touchdown. A successful two-point conversion on another pass from Forrest to Polley put the Braves ahead 14-7.

Gladstone (2-0) cemented the game with just 1:21 left in the third as Cole Hansen rushed for a six-yard touchdown.

“Cole Hansen has a good game every week,” Braves’ coach Jeff Hansen said. “This is his third year as a varsity player, and he’s been making plays like this for us since he was in 10th grade. He epitomizes toughness and has a very solid understanding of the running scheme that you can see in his running style.”

Gaylord coach Shawn Sargent was mostly happy with the effort.

“In terms of defense, I would say we put up a pretty good effort until halfway through the third quarter,” Sargent said. “It was still okay afterword, but the production wasn’t there. It’s just one of those deals. Coming up short, it happens. “

The Braves overcame Forrest suffering a calf injury on a sack with just under six minutes remaining in the third quarter. He returned during the next possession and stayed in for the rest of the game.

“I thought it showed a ton of leadership and poise to go out there and tough out the rest of the game, basically on one leg,” coach Hansen said. “That’s what you look for from the quarterback of your team, and I thought that really permeated the team when they saw him out there standing tall, running plays.

“It looked like a calf strain. He got some treatment on the sideline, and we’ll just go day-to-day based on what the trainer says.”

The fourth quarter was a scoreless, defensive battle.

The Blue Devils (1-1) sat on Gladstone’s 11-yard line with 5:30 left with one yard to go on third down. A holding penalty erased a 4-yard run and dropped them back to the 21, making it 3rd-and-11. A six-yard run from Gaylord’s Jacob Cleaver put the Blue Devils on the Gladstone 15 with 4th-and-5 to go. The subsequent pass was broken up and the Braves took over on their own 15 with just over five minutes remaining.

A last ditch effort started for the Blue Devils on the Gladstone 41 with 3:40 left on the clock. Gaylord was unable to move the ball and a third down pass along the sideline was knocked away by Gladstone’s Caden Alworden to seal the game.

“This was a tough A-class opponent, so to come out against a team like Gaylord with the kind of athletes they have and the kind of front they can pull off, I think says a ton about the grit and resilience of our team,” coach Hansen said. “There’s a couple holding penalties that we have to clean up because those tend to be drive killers in high school football. I think you can see that we improve week-to-week.”

The Braves scored the first touchdown of the game with just under two minutes remaining in the first quarter on a five-yard run by Hansen.

The Blue Devils’ only score came in the second quarter. After applying some pressure to the Braves with two interceptions, one nabbed by Quinn Schultz less than a minute into the quarter, and the other taken by Rico Brown set up a scoring drive from their own 28. Despite Cleaver being taken down in the backfield for a seven-yard loss, Gaylord’s Corey Deer executed on the next play with a well placed pass to Cleaver for a 73-yard touchdown. A successful extra point gave the Blue Devils a 7-6 lead entering halftime.

“(Cleaver and Ben Welch) did a nice job,” Sargent said. “They’re a couple of our captains and senior leaders. They kept grinding. They have to play both sides of the ball. They were tired, but they kept grinding for the team.”

Cole Hansen led the Braves’ offense with two touchdowns and 163 yards on the ground on 26 carries. Forrest finished 6-of-12 for 133 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.

Polley notched one catch for 36 yards and a score. Zach Hanson also collected 29 yards on one catch, and John Hansen finished with 40 yards receiving.

Cleaver led the Blue Devils’ offense with 96 yards receiving, 21 yards on the ground and a touchdown. Welch finished with 58 yards on 18 carries, and Schultz collected 46 yards on four receptions. Deer finished 10-of-17 for 142 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.

Gladstone, which won both the jayvee and freshman games, hosts Menominee Friday in its Great Northern Conference opener while Gaylord travels to Alpena Sept. 14.

“The plan is the same as our last two opponents,” coach Hansen said. “We’re going to hit them as hard as we can every down and see what happens.”