EBEN — The Superior Central Cougars made the Gogebic Miners pay for their mistakes here Saturday as they broke away for a 46-14 football victory.
Gogebic, which lost four fumbles in this non-conference contest, fell to its 27th straight loss dating back to 2017.
The Miners trailed 14-6 at halftime on this sunny and mild afternoon.
Superior Central (2-1) immediately set the tone for the second half when sophomore Logan Frusti recovered an onside kick on its 46-yard line.
The Cougars then found the end zone inside of two minutes when senior quarterback Zach Frusti scampered around right end for a 50-yard touchdown and a 20-6 lead.
“The onside kick kind of guarantees you’re going to keep the ball on the ground, and we practiced that all day Friday,” said Cougars’ coach Sam Eggleston. “We knew that even if we didn’t recover the ball, field position was still favorable for us. We also knew we had the ability to get some takeaways. We told our first guy to hit them hard and the second guy to aim for the ball. I haven’t seen our football players this excited for a while. We put together two good halves so far. I thought we shot ourselves in the foot in the first half.”
Superior Central’s lead grew to 28-6 with 2:53 remaining in the third stanza when Zach Frusti tossed a 40-yard pass through the middle to junior Lucas Swetich.
Swetich raised the count to 34-6 on a 50-yard reverse to his left 58 seconds into the fourth.
Five seconds later, junior reserve quarterback Wyatt Kulik recovered a fumble on the Cougars’ 38, then scored on a 15-yard keeper for a 40-6 advantage with 10 minutes left to play.
“They played tough,” said Gogebic coach Nick Heikkila. “We have to work on ball security and capitalizing on turnovers. We had three drives where we lost the ball on fumbles.”
The Miners (0-3) got their second TD on senior Jack Matrella’s 40-yard keeper to the right side midway through the fourth.
Superior Central concluded the scoring on a six-yard run around left end by Swetich at 3:31.
Gogebic opened with a five-play, 53-yard drive, gaining an early 6-0 lead on Matrella’s 23-yard keeper to the left.
“It was exciting for the kids to move the ball down the field,” said Heikkila. “The guys never quit. They keep their nose to the grindstone. We’re a young team. Half our guys are underclassmen.”
Superior Central tied the score on Zach Frusti’s 18-yard run through the right side, set up on a fumble recovery by junior Emmett Vining on the Gogebic 47 early in the second frame.
The Cougars finished with 401 yards in total offense. Zach Frusti ran 25 times for 182 and completed 4-of-7 passes for 64. Swetich carried eight times for 69 and caught three aerials for 54, and Kulik had 70 yards on seven carries.
Gogebic rushed for 214 of its 266 yards. Matrella led the way with 130 on 19 carries, and senior Thomas Udd added 52 in 12 attempts.
Matrella was 1-of-7 passing for 13 yards, and freshman Bode Lynott hit 1-of-3 aerials for 39.
“No. 61 (Udd) is a beast,” said Eggleston. “He had a huge impact in the first half. We’re in a fortunate position where we can rotate linemen, and I think we wore them down. We noticed they started getting tired.”
Junior Ben Molag also recovered a fumble for the Cougars, who host Cedarville-DeTour Saturday. The Miners face Rogers City at Munising Saturday.
