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Football: Defense spurs Flivvers in 33-14 win over Gladstone

Kingsford quarterback Luke Terrian prepares to throw as Gladstone's Christopher Creten applies pressure in Friday's Great Northern Conference football game at Flivver Field. (Burt Angeli/The Daily News)

KINGSFORD — Kingsford quarterback Luke Terrian returned to the lineup and the defense created a couple scores as Kingsford downed Gladstone 33-14 in Great Northern Conference football Friday at Flivver Field.

The Flivvers (1-3, 1-0) started the season with losses to three standout Wisconsin teams.

Terrian, who suffered an ankle injury early in the season opener with Menasha and has sat out since, completed 7 of 12 passes for 108 yards and one score. The senior also ran 17 yards for a score late in the second quarter to put the Flivvers ahead 13-7.

“It was good to see him back in the flow of things,” said Kingsford head coach Chris Hofer. “He makes our offense a little different.”

Terrian closed out the game’s scoring with a 16-yard toss to Trevor Povolo in the fourth quarter.

“Terrian’s a stud and as good as advertised,” said Gladstone head coach Jeff Hansen. “He’s a very good football player and definitely made a big difference for Kingsford.”

The first of two Kingsford defensive scores came in the first quarter when Nate Rutter stepped in front of a pass and raced 78 yards.

With Kingsford owning a 13-7 halftime lead, Gladstone took the second-half kick and moved to the Flivver 15. But that’s where Gladstone fumbled and Michael Creighton went 85 yards for a deciding score.

“That was huge,”Hofer said. “They were driving.”

Hansen and the Gladstone bench thought the Braves runner was down on the play.

“He absolutely looked down to me and everybody on our sideline thought so,” Hansen said. “But the referee saw it a different way. But there was a heck of a lot of football that had to get played after that and by no means dictated the end result to this game.

“We still needed to come back and play better football down the stretch. We didn’t play as good as we needed to.”

Creighton’s score came with 8:58 left in the third quarter and five minutes later Povolo found a gaping hole on the left side for an 84-yard touchdown run. Povolo, who streaked 89 yards last week against Fond du Lac, led the Flivvers with 100 yards rushing on eight attempts.

In the fourth quarter, Braves quarterback Jared Crow hit Quinney Downey with an 18-yard scoring pass to cut the deficit to 26-14.

“It was a hard fought game,” Hansen said. “We hurt ourselves with turnovers and you can’t beat a good football team in their house if you do that. The effort was there, the want-to was there and execution at a couple critical moments wasn’t for us.”

Crow and Drake Forrest completed 23 of 41 passes for 347 yards — 189 in the second half. The Braves added 51 on the ground for 398. Kingsford had 277 yards of total offense.

“A win’s a win, I guess,” Hofer said. “We got a couple defensive scores and did a couple things good on offense. But we have a ways to go.”

Kingsford travels to Wausau East next Saturday. Gladstone (2-2, 1-1) hosts Maple City Glen Lake on Friday.

“It comes down to us if we lose a football game,” Hansen said. “It’s on us because we didn’t do what we needed to do in all phases to make it happen.”

Gladstone 0 7 0 7 — 14

Kingsford 7 6 13 7 — 33

First Quarter

K — Rutter 78 interception return (Normand kick), 0:31

Second Quarter

G — Hanson 8 pass from Crow (Charlebois kick), 5:47

K — Terrian 17 run (Normand kick failed), 1:23

Third Quarter

K — Creighton 85 fumble return (2-pt failed), 8:58

K — Povolo 84 run (Normand kick), 3:11

Fourth Quarter

G — Downey 18 pass from Crow (Charlebois kick), 11:06

K — Povolo 16 pass from Terrian (Normand kick), 1:49

Statistics

Total offense — Kingsford 277 (169 rushing, 108 passing), Gladstone 398 (51 rushing, 347 passing)

Rushing — K, Terrian 10-52, Povolo 8-100; G, Sanville 18-56

Passing — K, Terrian 7-12-1, 108; G, Crow and Forrest 23-41-1, 347

Interceptions — K, Rutter; G, Peterson

Penalties — K, 4-45; G, 5-50

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