RAPID RIVER — Despite trailing by 20 points at two separate points in the second half — and starting the third quarter down by 18 — the Rapid River Rockets staged a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback to defeat the Superior Central Cougars 56-54 at Rapid River’s homecoming game.

“First of all, you know, we always talk all year long — and every year I coach — we talk about 48 minutes of football,” said Rockets coach Steve Ostrenga. “If you give everything you’ve got for 48 minutes, that’s championship football. These guys gave everything they’ve got, and they did, too. Hats off to Superior Central. They gave 48 minutes.”

Several key plays in the fourth quarter propelled the Rockets to the win.

The first came on the opening play of the quarter with Blake Lundquist and Carter Johnson connected for 20 yards to find the endzone.

Rapid followed that up with a fumble recovery by Karson Hardwick on the kickoff.

The ensuing drive was punctuated with another Lundquist-Johnson touchdown, this one for 12 yards, followed by a successful two-point try from Lundquist to Tucker Carlson.

Again, the Rockets recovered a fumble on the kickoff, this time Jonah Frizzell falling on the ball.

The go-ahead touchdown came on the ground from 21 yards out courtesy of the legs on Ethan Harrison.

The Rockets’ defense stifled the Zach Frusti led Cougars’ offense on the next drive, forcing another fumble recovered, again, by Hardwick.

Rapid River took over and ran the clock out to secure the win.

With the loss, an outside chance at making the postseason slipped away for the Superior Central Cougars.

“(I’m) disappointed,” said Superior Central coach Sam Eggleston. “We had a lot of mental errors and things that should have been automatic for us, we didn’t do correctly.”

Eggleston was also complimentary of the Rapid River program.

“Steve runs a great program over here., These kids are fired up, and we didn’t come out at the half as strong as we should have, and they came out with every bit of momentum and energy they needed.”