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Football: Kingsford beats Iron Mountain sixth straight time

Kingsford's Luke Terrian, right, runs as Iron Mountain's Zach Axberg approaches Friday, Oct. 6, 2017, in Kingsford. Terrian ran for two scores in the Flivvers' 42-7 win. (Theresa Proudfit/The Daily News)

KINGSFORD — Iron Mountain’s two turnovers in the first quarter led to a pair of scores by Kingsford en route to a 42-7 win in the teams’ 93rd meeting on Friday.

The win gives the Flivvers (5-1) its sixth in a row over the Mountaineers (1-6).

Kingsford is now 20-8 against Iron Mountain since 1990, outscoring the Mountaineers 713-339 in that stretch. The all-time series is now tied 45-45-3.

Kingsford’s scores off the turnovers came on consecutive possessions. Luke Terrian opened the scoring with a 5-yard run followed by a 24-yard pass reception by Jon Schmutzler about 30 seconds after.

“We were looking to score early. I thought we could move the ball throwing the ball,” Kingsford head coach Chris Hofer said. “We actually ran the ball really good too. We just wanted to get some points early.”

The Mountaineers dressed 16 players and struggled on offense. Iron Mountain crossed the 50 with about three minutes left in the first quarter facing a 21-0 deficit. The Mountaineers didn’t get in the red zone until about midway through the third quarter. They finished the game with 239 yards of offense including 125 rushing and 114 passing.

“We got beat by a better football team,” Iron Mountain coach Robin Marttila said. “Kingsford was bigger, faster and stronger than us. That was evident. They’re a really good team. Give credit to them and their coaches.”

Kingsford held a 35-0 halftime lead.

The Flivvers racked up 422 yards of offense including 255 rushing and 167 passing. Kingsford quarterback Sawyer Perpich was 7 of 8 passing with two touchdowns.

Terrian, Schmutzler and Trevor Povolo each had two touchdowns. Schmutzler and Povolo both caught a touchdown reception.

Iron Mountain had some highlights including a 55-yard pass on second-and-15 from Jacob Tucker to Charlie Gerhard near the start of the fourth quarter.

The Mountaineers also had a goal line stand in the ensuing possession. Kingsford snapped the ball three times from inside Iron Mountain’s 1 yard line and failed to find the end zone.

“We could’ve gave them another seven points late in that fourth quarter,” Marttila said. “Kudos to the kids out there for getting that goal line stand. We could’ve just folded right there, but credit our kids for battling and getting a goal-line stand late in the game.”

Tucker picked up a pair of interceptions.

Nate Rutter had an interception and Chase Kreski had two for the Flivvers.

Hofer said the Flivvers’ individual performances were due to strong teamwork.

“I thought everybody played pretty good,” Hofer said. “It’s hard to really single anyone out on anything. We had some good throws, good catches, covered well and played good D at times.”

Iron Mountain was 2 of 9 on third-down conversions, while Kingsford was 2 of 5. The Mountaineers were 1 of 3 on fourth-down conversions. Kingsford failed its only fourth-down conversion attempt when the Mountaineers made the goal-line stand.

“Our kids battled hard for 40 minutes. We were just overmatched. We tried to string together a couple first downs and keep the clock going, put some points on the board,” Marttila said. “Obviously Kingsford’s defense is very tough to run on and we were limited in what we could do. Having said that, I thought our backs ran hard. We ran a lot of plays, I know that. I thought we were just out-gunned.”

Hofer said the play at the line of scrimmage has been a staple for Kingsford this season.

“That’s one of the strengths of our team,” he said. “We just wanted to execute stuff. We just ran our base stuff and tried to run it well.”

Iron Mountain 0 0 0 7 — 7

Kingsford 21 14 7 0 — 42

First Quarter

K — Luke Terrian, 5-yard run (Chase Kreski kick), 6:26

K — Jon Schmutzler, 24-yard pass from Sawyer Perpich (Kreski kick), 5:57

K — Terrian, 21-yard run (Kreski kick), 5:02

Second Quarter

K — Trevor Povolo, 73-yard run (Kreski kick), 2:40

K — Povolo, 33-yard pass from Perpich (Kreski kick), 2:01

Third Quarter

K — Schmutzler, 45-yard run (Kreski kick), 11:01.

Fourth Quarter

IM — Charlie Gerhard, 55-yard pass from Jacob Tucker (CJ Dantes kick), 11:25

First Downs: IM 9, Kingsford 10

Third Down Conversion: IM 2-9, K 2-5

Total offense: IM 239, K 422

Turnovers: IM 4, Kingsford 2

Penalties: IM 2 for 10 yards; K 3 for 25 yards

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