Miners Take Charge Early; Dominate Braves, 41-17

GLADSTONE---The Negaunee Miners dominated the line of scrimmage and posted a dominating 41-17 football win over the Gladstone Braves Friday night in Gladstone.

The Miners rolled up more than 400 yards in offense and kept the Braves out of the end zone until the Negaunee bench players came in during the fourth quarter.

Negaunee served notice early on that the Braves would not be able to do much on this night.

The Miners pushed the Braves back on the first Gladstone offensive series, forcing a three-and-out. Negaunee marched down the field on a 70-yard, 11-play drive that ended on an 11-yard touchdown run by George Johnson.

Gladstone battled back with a nice drive of its own. Quarterback Ben Schwalbach, who was sacked six time last week against Benzie Central, had a bit more time to set up this week.

He completed a 17-yard pass to Owen Carlson, hooked up with Jake Greenfield for a 16-yard completion, and then found Carlson again for another 12-yard pass. The drive stalled, though, in the red zone.

Gladstone settled for a James Bruce 28-yard field goal, making it a 7-3 game.

Negaunee wasted little time in regaining momentum. Shane Ring broke off a 14-yard run, Jeff Matthews rumbled to a 16-yard first down scamper, and then sophomore quarterback Brock Aho found Dylan Tasson wide open for a 30-yard touchdown pass.

The Braves went three-and-out on the next series, and the Miners started a drive on their own nine yard-line. Negaunee converted a couple of third-down plays into first downs (they were 5-for-5 in those situations early on), but the Braves made a big defensive play when Coach Paul Jacobsen went for it on 4th-and-6 from his own 45.

Matt Chenier came up with a huge stop of Johnson, forcing a turnover on downs.

Gladstone was down, 14-3, but had the ball in Negaunee territory with 3:42 left in the second quarter.

But the next two minutes went badly for the Braves. On the first play after the big defensive stop, a block-in-the-back penalty cost Gladstone 13 yards.

Then, on 1st-and-23, Schwalbach's pass intended for Hunter Garling was underthrown, and was intercepted by Dylan Tasson. On the first offensive play, Negaunee's Neal Violetta strolled into the end zone, untouched, for a 15-yard touchdown run.

The extra point kick by Jake Paupore made it 21-3, and then, things got worse for Gladstone, as Schwalbach was intercepted again. 

This time, it was Aho leaping into the air at midfield to make a one-handed grab.

The Miners went to work on offense again, as Aho found Tasson for a 15-yard pass completion.

Ring ripped off a 30-yard run to the Gladstone eight yard line, and Violetta strolled in for another touchdown. The PAT kick was blocked, but it was a 27-3 Negaunee advantage.

A rough two minutes, indeed, for the Braves. But they kept battling, as Schwalbach found Greenfield for passes of 26 and 12 yards in the two-minute drill. The Braves set up Bruce for a 48-yard field goal attempt, but the kick was blocked as the half ended.

In the third quarter, Johnson scored again on a nine-yard touchdown run, and after another Gladstone pass interception, Aho found Johnson for a nine-yard touchdown pass with 1:14 left in the third quarter. That play happened after Aho had converted a 2nd-and-22 play with a pass to Johnson at around midfield.

With the score 41-3, the game went into mercy rule mode, with a running clock entering the fourth quarter.

Gladstone prolonged the game by scoring two touchdowns in the final eight minutes on passes from Schwalbach to Greenfield of 33 and 35 yards.

But those two cosemetic touchdowns weren't enough to put much of a dent into the Negaunee lead. The Miners, unofficially, had more than 400 yards of total offense.

While Negaunee improved to 3-0 on the season, the Braves fell to 2-1. It doesn't get any easier for Gladstone, as Menominee comes to town for the Great Northern Conference opener.

The Maroons are 3-0 after beating Kewauanee (Wis.), 34-0, Friday night.

Next Friday night's Gladstone-Menominee game will be played at the Marble Athletic Field, with kickoff set for 7:00 ET. The game will be broadcast live on WGKL-FM (105.5), WCHT-AM (600), and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos taken by Nate Bellville. You can also hear radio highlights, and interviews with Troy Chenier, Ross Miron, and Coach Jeff Hansen.