Forest Park running back Sam McKissack (31) prepares to stiff-arm a Gogebic defender during Thursday’s game in Wakefield. McKissack tallied 215 yards rushing on just 13 carries in the Trojans’ 46-6 victory. (Jason Juno/Daily Globe photo)

WAKEFIELD –The Gogebic Miners defense looked strong early on against visiting Forest Park in an 8-player football clash Thursday. The host Miners recovered a fumble on their first drive and forced a punt on their third.

“They were flying around the field, they were coming up, popping pads. That was good, a good sign to see,” Gogebic coach Nick Heikkila said.

That made what happened the rest of the half even more frustrating for Gogebic. The Trojans always had an answer after Gogebic got an early stop and eventually left for home with a 46-6 win in the Great Lakes Eight (West) clash.

Gogebic recovered a fumble in Forest Park territory on the first possession of the game. But the Trojans’ tough defense stopped them like it did the entire first half — without allowing even one first down. When Forest Park got the ball back, their All-U.P. Dream Team running back, Sam McKissack, broke free on a third and long, going 59 yards for the first touchdown.

After punting themselves, the Gogebic defense forced a Forest Park punt. But they fumbled it away in the Forest Park red zone, and the Trojans took two plays to score again.

The Trojans then poured it on in the second quarter, scoring two touchdowns in the first minute thanks in part to another Gogebic fumble, and they made it three in the first 3 minutes, 5 seconds. It was 38-0 at halftime.

“Things got away from us,” Heikkila said. “We were making mental mistakes. We had some guys go down with nagging injuries.”

The Miners never got going offensively. They didn’t get a first down in the first half and rushed for a game total of 64 yards. McKissack was as good as advertised, rushing for 215 yards on 13 carries.

“He is quick,” Heikkila of the 6-0, 185-pound senior. “He’s not even shifty – slippery, maybe that’s the best way I can put it.”

He certainly caused problems for them all evening Thursday.

His first TD made it 6-0 on the 59-yard run. He didn’t score their next touchdown. But after Forest Park took over at the Gogebic 17, thanks to a Miners fumble (recovered by Kevin Giuliani), he rushed 14 yards and quarterback Payton Woollard ran the final three yards on the next play to put them ahead 14-0.

McKissack didn’t run for the next touchdown, he was the passer. He hit a wide-open Nikolas Stevens for a 43-yard TD nine seconds into the second quarter.

Forest Park recovered another fumble and Reagan Alder rushed 16 yards for a touchdown. Less than a minute into the second, the Trojans had two more touchdowns and a 30-0 lead.

McKissack ran 63 yards for a touchdown to make it 38-0 with 8:55 left in the half. His 45-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter capped the Forest Park scoring.

“Just a hard worker, believes in the system, believes in the coaches,” Forest Park coach Brian Fabbri said of McKissack. “He’s just a leader on the field. He runs hard. He typically doesn’t like to make too many cuts, he likes to lower his shoulder, so it was nice to see him move a little bit and not take some hits tonight.”

Gabe Harju, who led the Miners with 50 yards on 14 carries, put the Miners on the board with an eight-yard run early in the fourth quarter.

Forest Park hasn’t changed much, even as an eight-player team. While other teams build their offense around speed, they hit hard and look to run the ball right at you. And it works.

“We pride ourselves on that,”Fabbri said. “If we can keep it basic, we will. We don’t need to be fancy, we don’t need to light up the scoreboard by any means. We just love playing football and the kids buy in, that’s half the battle.”

They got away from that a bit early Thursday as Gogebic’s defense found success and they had to adjust.

“We got back to the basics,” Fabbri said. “We were trying some of our counter action, some of our misdirection stuff. We were going too slow and giving them a chance to swarm to the ball and we decided to get back to our basics and just run straight ahead and try to establish our off-end run.”

Gogebic looked strong early, but it’s hard to keep morale up when things still don’t go your way. They didn’t finish drives defensively, they never got the offense going and they had too many turnovers in Forest Park territory.

But both coaches said Gogebic didn’t quit.

“They don’t quit, they keep coming, they keep coming and they do the best they can. I always have to remind myself we’re a young team,” Heikkila said. “I still consider us an extremely young team, especially football knowledge-wise. We have to keep putting in the work and building on our success.”

Harju, Jacob Merconti and Noah Linna all recovered fumbles for the Miners. Harju had three solo tackles and five assists. Chase Montie finished with four solos and three assists.

Gogebic (0-2) goes to North Central next week.