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ESCANABA---For the better part of a century, the Escanaba Eskymos have dominated the Gladstone Braves in football.

Year in, year out, the Eskymos were able to count on a win against their next-door neighbors, and usually, the games weren't all that close on the scoreboard. But things have changed.

For the first time in the long series between the two rivals, the Braves have beaten the Eskymos three straight years. Gladstone raced to a 27-0 lead in the first half and cruised to a 30-0 victory Friday night at the Escanaba Athletic Field.

"I believe this is the first time in history that we've done this, beat Escanaba three straight seasons," Gladstone Coach Craig Ness said. "That was one of our goals. This team, these guys, they worked hard for it. They played great. It's been a great season and I think we are hitting our stride right now. We keep getting guys back (from injury) and we are getting close to full strength. I'm just so proud of this team and how hard they work."

The win clinched a home playoff spot for the Braves with a 7-2 record for a second straight year, while the Eskymos finished 2-7 for a second straight year.

"We just came out swinging and came out strong like we knew we had to come out," said Gladstone senior Kaden Gibbs, who intercepted two passes in the game. "We couldn't do like we did in Calumet when we came out flat in the first half. We knew we had to bring it."

"I just wanted to physically hurt them, all week, that's all I wanted to do," said Braves junior Isaac Ketchum, who had a monster game of lead-blocking and hard running. "The only thing that changed this week is that it's Esky Week."
 

Escanaba Coach Bailey Lamb feels that his program is going in the right direction despite a 4-14 record the past two years. He's encouraged with his team's work ethic, and the talent he sees on the junior varsity team that just wrapped up a 9-0 season on Thursday.

"The one thing that these kids have ever yet to do is give up," Lamb said. "I haven't seen them give up once. Whether they're losing on the field, they're still in it mentally. I had 85 unique names show up to workouts this summer. They were bought-in, and from the start, they were a family. They never pointed fingers at each other, even in the hard times."

The tone for the game was set with just ten seconds off the clock when Casey Alworden took the opening kickoff to the house for a 78-yard touchdown. Luke Inghram's PAT kick made it 7-0.

"I literally said in the locker room, 'Casey lets bring this back to the house'," Gibbs said. "And that's what he did."

"That was a huge lift for us," Ness said. "It was a great way to start the game and it did set us up for a good night."

Lamb says the play was big for Gladstone, but didn't kill his team at that point.
 

"I think we just had abreakdown and one of our guys just got out of his lane," Lamb said. "I mean, that's just kickoffs right? That's why it's such a volatile play. I really didn't sense any defeat on the sideline after that. The kids knew that they screwed up and we (coaches) weren't going to bash on them. It was the first play of the game. When you practice it all week and that happens, it's like 'what the heck', but it's not about the bad play you give up, it's how you bounce back."

Escanaba tried to bounce back, but the Eskymos just didn't have the horses to stay with the Braves, especially in the offensive and defensive lines, where the Braves dominated for most of the night.

After Alworden's big play, Escanaba went three-and-out on its first series, jumping off-sides while lining up to go for a 4th-and-1 conversion. In the game, the Eskymos used all six of their time outs, twice because they had too many men on the field.

Bon LaChance, who was busy all night as the Eskymo punter, booted the Braves deep, but Gladstone went on a methodical 78-yard drive, with Eli Berthaume converting a 3rd-and-4 with a twelve-yard run, and he eventually scored on a four-yard run to make it a 13-0 lead.

Escanaba continued to sputter on offense, with a fumble in the second quarter recovered by Gladstone's Austin Solis at the 40 yard-line. Six plays later, all of them on the ground, Berthaume went in from six yards out to make it a 20-0 game (after Inghram's kick).

The Eskymos put together a drive into the red zone, as quarterback Nolan Bink raced for 15 yards on 3rd-and-17, and then Ben Johnson got the first down on 4th-and-2.

But on 2nd-and-1 at the Gladstone 17 yard-line, Bink was sacked for a three-yard loss, Johnson was stuffed on an edge run, and a shot to the end zone was incomplete on fourth down.

That kept the score at 20-0, and the Braves had three minutes to work with heading into the halftime break.

And the Braves made the most of that three minutes, going on an 80-yard drive, capped off on a 44-yard touchdown pass from Nate Young to a very wide-open Elliot Vitito.

Inghram's extra point kick made it a 27-0 game at halftime, as Jake Perryman sacked Bink for a 14-yard loss on the final play.

The second half saw a lot of younger guys get in for the Braves. The only points of the second half came on an 18-yard field goal by Inghram, after the Braves tried three times to get senior lineman Vinny Howes a touchdown from the one-yard-line, but he was stopped short of the goal line by the Eskymo defense.

Inghram, incidentally, missed one extra point, but has been a pleasant surprise for the Braves this season, after not having a placekicker for many years. So far this season, Inghram as made 13 of his 15 extra point kicks since coming up to the varsity team in Week Five. He has also made two of three field goal attempts.

Escanaba had one last chance to break the shutout with a fourth quarter drive that started at the 20 yard-line and included a 38-yard pass from Bink to Conner Royer down to the Braves 12 yard-line. The next play, however, Bink threw under pressure and was intercepted by Jack Savard in the end zone. It was Escanaba's fourth turnover of the game (three interceptions and one lost fumble).

Berthaume led the Braves with 101 yards rushing on 16 carries, and two touchdowns. Owen Gereau, a JV call-up, had a nice fourth quarter, with 112 yards on 11 carries, including a 67-yard run. Isaac Ketchum contributed 35 yards on six hard-nosed carries.

Young rushed for 30 yards on four carries, and he completed 7-of-11 passes for 146 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Vitito had four catches for 69 yards, Kaden Gibbs had two catches for 47 yards, and Johnny Soderman had one catch for 20 yards.

Overall, Gladstone had 288 rushing yards and 146 passing yards for a total of 434 yards in total offense. On defense, Gibbs had two interceptions, Savard had one, and Solis recovered a fumble.

For Escanaba, Bink completed 6-of-14 passes for 75 yards and three interceptions. Connor Royer and Javari Ausborn both had two grabs, while Ben Johnson and Reese Korhonen each had one catch.

On the ground, Johnson had 35 yards on ten carries, Noah Gagne ten yards on five carries, and Bink had negative yardage thanks to several sacks. Escanaba ended up with 44 yards in rushing and 75 passing for 119 total yards of offense.

For the Braves, the defense has now gone six straight quarters without allowing a point. The streak started at halftime of last week's Calumet game, when the Braves rallied from a 21-7 deficit to win.

After the game, there was a large fireworks display at the field, and then, as the stadium lights were turned off, several of the Eskymo seniors came back on to the field, not wanting to leave or even take off their uniforms after playing the final game of their careers.

Gladstone, meanwhile, moves on to the MHSAA state playoffs for a fourth straight season. The Braves will likely host Boyne City (5-4) next weekend, and if they win that, they would host the winner of the Negaunee-Grayling game the following weekend.

The official MHSAA pairings will be released Sunday night.