GWINN — A young Bark River-Harris football team started the season off right in Gwinn Friday with a West-PAC Iron conferencewin over the Modeltowners 28-6.

Entering the second quarter tied 6-6, the Broncos shook their first game jitters and began wearing a groove in the turf with 349 total yards of rushing offense.

“This is a young team. They were nervous, (and needed) to get the jitters out of the way and establish something,” Broncos coach Al Stenberg said. “They came out in a little bit of a different defense than we were expecting. It took us a while to adjust to that being that we’re a primarily junior and sophomore led team.”

A key part of their production on the ground was edge blocking, and Stenberg was happy to see the Broncos translate practice into game-time execution on their way to a 22-6 lead at the half.

“Our edge blocking was really strong,” he said. “We were able to get the edge on them all night long, and both of our wings — Noah (Gagne) and Josiah (Javurek) — each had over 100 yards rushing. What was more impressive was their blocking for each other. They were repeatedly able to get the edge on the run, sweep after sweep, on either side. That was a huge component of the win.”

Gagne, a sophomore running back, collected 101 yards and a touchdown over eight carries, and Javurek, a junior and fellow running back, finished with 117 yards and one TD on 12 rushes.

BR-H fullback and senior Trevor Lippens added two TDs of his own over 82 yards and 18 carries as well as an interception.

“It’s nice to get a win with young players, and I’m looking forward to moving the program forward,” Stenberg said.

One of those younger players is quarterback Ethan Ives, who finished 2-for-3 through the air for a total of 59 yards.

Defensively, junior Corbin LaFave earned nine tackles.

“Gwinn had very few players, so for the size team they had, they fought very hard,” Stenberg said. “Coach (Tabb) Lonergan did a great job with them. We play them later in the year, so I’m looking forward to (their progress).

“We have 27 guys on varsity this year, and that’s a significant amount more than Gwinn and a lot of teams we’ll face. We’re going to have more bodies (than they do), and that is a huge impact as games wear on.”

Bark River travels to West Iron County Thursday.