Calumet’s Brayden Nelson rushes while being defended by Westwood’s Jerzee Karski (2) on Friday, Sept. 9, 2022, in Calumet, Mich. (Eddie O’Neill/The Daily Mining Gazette)
CALUMET — It was a wet and wild one on Friday night at Agassiz Field as the Calumet Copper Kings won their first game of the season 18-16 against Westwood.
It was the first win for first-year head coach Josh Frantti after taking over this season for John Croze.
“It was awesome. The guys have been working so hard, and I am super happy for them,” Frantti said. “They deserve it.”
Both coaches said that it was not an easy game to play as rained lightly for the first two quarters and a downpour made for some slippery football all through the second half of the game.
In fact, all the scoring took place in the first two quarters. It was a back-and-forth battle to say the least with Calumet (1-2) winning the opening skirmish.
At the 9:36 mark in the first, Calumet’s Brayden Nelson ran 26 yards with the ball to the far-left corner of the end zone to make it a 6-0 game to end the first. The Copper Kings failed on the two-point conversion.
The Patriots (0-3) opened the second with a touch down to take an 8-6 lead.
The Patriots Jayce Arseneau completed a long Westwood drive with a two-yard touchdown run and scored the two-point conversion as well.
The two rivals then would trade touchdowns to finish out the first half.
Calumet’s Hans Kiilunen had a 50-yard touchdown run from the line of scrimmage with 3:35 on the clock.
Westwood march right back in to the game as their quarterback Andrew Niemi launched a 40-yard pass play to receiver Edward Anderson for six points. Arseneau ran it in for two, Westwood now had the lead at 16-12.
However, their lead didn’t last long . With less than 30 seconds on the clock, Calumet’s Aksel Loukus punched it in on a four-yard run to make it an 18-16 Copper Kings’ tilt.
Frantti appreciated the fact that the three scores came from three different players . That was by design as the team made some adjustments a week ago during their game against Negaunee.
“In that game last week, I switched Hans (Kiilunen) from quarter back to full back and put Aksel in as our quarterback, and it seemed to work tonight.”
He said, “Hans has a lot of physical ability and is strong in the way he runs the ball. He had some big runs on third and fourth downs to help seal the game for us tonight. This is the way it will be moving forward. It is nice to have a team full of guys who are willing to do whatever it takes to win games.”
As the rain clouds turned from a steady rain to a downpour in the second, it made all the difference. Westwood struggled the most as they could not hold onto the ball. They fumbled three time in the last two quarters of the game. However, neither team scored.
Westwood’s head coach Jacob Wolf said he was pleased with his team’s effort. It was their best game yet.
“We are right there on the cusps of winning games,” he said.
“One missed block here or there and that made the difference in this one.”
He said that Niemi’s long-touchdown pass to Anderson was certainly a positive and great to see. He also was pleased with the complete -game attitude his boys brought to the field for the first time this season.
“We didn’t have a lull or a real low moment in the game,” he said. “On the contrary, we had a lot of energy and effort flying around. Slowly but surely, we are putting together the pieces of this puzzle.”
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