Trending
HARRIS -- A short field to begin the third quarter turned into points for visiting Iron Mountain and proved to be the difference as the Mountaineers hung on to defeat Bark River-Harris 28-22 in a West PAC Conference crossover game Friday night at Bark River-Harris Schools.
The Broncos were late returning to the field from halftime, resulting in a 15-yard penalty that was assessed on the kickoff. The Mountaineers started their opening drive of the half at the BR-H 40 yard line.
"I get a little long-winded at halftime sometimes, and I didn't realize that the clock had run down to the point in which it did," said Broncos head coach Al Stenberg. "That 15 yards definitely hurt us, for sure."
The Mountaineers, leading 14-8 at the time, slowly drove the ball downfield. A Broncos false start penalty gave Iron Mountain a first and goal from the 3.
Iron Mountain fullback Bradon Farragh plunged into the end zone for his second 1-yard touchdown run of the night. A successful 2-point conversion gave the Mountaineers a 22-8 lead. They needed every bit of it as BR-H fought to the end.
Two of the first three plays of the game were eventful. The Broncos fumbled the opening kickoff, which was recovered by Colin Schneider of the Mountaineers. Then, on IM's second play from scrimmage, the Broncos forced a fumble that was recovered by Austin Mosher of BR-H.
It was the Broncos who got on the scoreboard first on their ensuing drive. Senior running back Trevor Lippens scored the first of his two rushing touchdowns from 14 yards out.
"After giving up an early touchdown, the kids battled back and we got a score of our own," said Iron Mountain head coach Robin Marttila. "We had good balance on offense tonight, but Bark River played a heck of a game as well. But our boys fought till the end and we move on to our next opponent."
Lippens finished the game with 23 carries for 157 yards. The Broncos, after a 3-0 start to the season, have dropped two straight home games to slip to 3-2.
"Trevor Lippens is our workhorse. We knew if we were going to have a chance to win, we'd have to feed him the ball. He was making things happen even when our blocking wasn't good at times tonight," Stenberg added.
Late in the third quarter, Lippens found the end zone for his second rushing touchdown of the game, this one from 33 yards out, which narrowed the Mountaineers' lead to 22-14.
A 23-yard Luke Wolfe touchdown run gave the Mountaineers a two-touchdown advantage, 28-14, at the 9:00 mark of the final quarter.
With 3:49 remaining, Broncos sophomore quarterback Ethan Ives threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Ben Shiverski in the left corner of the north end zone. A successful Bark River 2-point conversion trimmed the Iron Mountain lead back to 28-22.
As the time wore off the clock, each team possessed the ball one more time. The Broncos had the ball for the last 52 seconds of the game and ran out of time as the Iron Mountain defense held them to minimal yardage on their final possession.
"It was a four-quarter battle tonight, and we ended up making one more positive play than them. Their defense was stout as we expected," Marttila added. "Our line on both sides of the ball got better as the game went on."
The Mountaineers, who improve to 3-2 on the season, have won two straight after dropping two straight. Iron Mountain, who has already been on the road for three weeks, will travel to Calumet for a West PAC Copper Division game on Friday night.
The Mountaineers return home for the final three weeks of the season, beginning with hosting Hancock on Oct. 8. Bark River-Harris, who is in the middle of five straight home games, will remain home to host West PAC Iron Division foe Manistique on Friday for Homecoming.
"We had breakdowns in pass coverage tonight, plus the edge of our defense wasn't as strong as it can be most of the time," Stenberg said. "Those things were the difference in the game."
Iron Mtn 6 8 8 6 -- 28
BR-H 8 0 6 8 -- 22