Iron Mountain’s Joe Bogaudo, left, clears the ball against Kingsford’s Brennan Phillips on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018, at Commemorative Field in Kingsford, Mich. (Adam Niemi/The Daily News)

KINGSFORD — A pair of first half goals propelled Iron Mountain in a 2-0 win over rival Kingsford at Commemorative Field on Monday.

Jurgen Kleiman reigned in the ball and buried a shot to give Iron Mountain the lead nearly halfway though the first half.

Almost 20 minutes later, David Brule III added another goal on a header from a free kick by Tyler Bengtson with 7:13 left.

Iron Mountain controlled much of the play, with Kingsford getting few chances on the night. The Mountaineers emphasized defense around Kingsford striker Ben Backlund.

“We did not change our general formation. We just had more awareness of the players to know where they were,” Iron Mountain head coach David Brule II said. “We made sure to have defenders on either side of Ben. Ben’s a great player. He can strike the ball well and score from anywhere within 25 yards. You’ve got to pay attention to him. So we made sure to have two guys — one contending for the ball and one just backing up in case he gets through because he can get through.”

Iron Mountain controlled the ball anywhere from midfield to the perimeter before getting scoring chances with crosses into the middle.

“They played well. They passed pretty well,” Brule said. “We had a game plan to be very much aware of where Ben Backlund and Kobe Gordon were on the field. They did. They executed it well and kept them from getting good chances.”

Kingsford’s quiet offense and lack of possessions left Kingsford head coach Jeff Gordon frustrated after the game.

“Good game between two rival teams. Both teams evenly matched, played a hard fought game,” Gordon said via email later Monday night. “We had some good moments with the ball but we couldn’t move it consistently. We changed our formation from previous games to balance our offense with our defense. We will keep working on it and move forward to our next opponent.”

With 16:07 remaining in the second half, Iron Mountain was whistled for a foul inside the 18, leading to a penalty kick.

Backlund took the kick and fired a low hard shot to the left corner that Mountaineers goalie Caleb Bryant laid out and blocked with outstretched arms. The ball skirted back across the box and Backlund got off another low kick from a rebound and Bryant made another diving block, jolting his Iron Mountain teammates and student section. As the ball was brought back across midfield, Backlund doubled back to Bryant, shook Bryant’s hand and congratulated him on the saves.

“I’m not sure what the call was. Sometimes you scratch your head,” Brule said. “I thought their player pushed our guy but the ref saw it from a different angle and gave them a PK. Caleb made a great save and then a great follow-up save. It got the kids really pumped up.”

Iron Mountain will face Kingsford as the away team at Commemorative Field on Oct. 16. Brule said he, again, expects Kingsford’s best.

“They’ve got some quality players,” he said. “Like I told the boys before the game started: Every kid on that team will be playing their best soccer game today. At least thus far in the season. Perhaps the next best one will be the next time we meet. It’s always a great game, I don’t care what the records are. It’s good fun.”

Kingsford hosts Lakeland today. Iron Mountain hosts Ironwood on Thursday.

Kingsford 0 0 — 0

Iron Mountain 2 0 — 2

First Half

IM — Kleiman, 25:06

IM — Brule (Bengtson), 7:13