10/28/2006

Seven score for Norse

Suttons Bay rolls by Boyne, 49-12

By AL PARKER
Special to the Record-Eagle

SUTTONS BAY — Suttons Bay used its usual suffocating defense and balanced scoring to dominate Boyne City 49-12 in a District 6 playoff football game on Friday night.

The Norsemen got seven touchdowns from seven different players while upping their season mark to 10-0.

"We played a nice game," Suttons Bay Coach Joe Trudeau said. "It's great for us to have that scoring balance. Teams we face won't be able to focus on just one player."

Senior running back Jordan Peplinski started the scoring for the Norsemen when he bulled his way into the end zone from the 1-yard line with 6:25 remaining in the opening quarter.

After Boyne City went three and out, the Norsemen moved the ball to midfield, then junior running back Erik Hernandez bolted through the line, cut to the left and outran the Rambler defenders to score his first-ever touchdown on a 50-yard scamper. Cale Forton ran in the conversion to make it 14-0.

"It took me a while to get it (in the 10th game of the season)," said Hernandez. "But it was pretty nice to score in a playoff game."

Midway through the second quarter, the Norsemen went up 21-0 on a 24-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Jeff Ruthkowski to senior end Adam Konieczka, who made a nice catch in the left corner of the end zone for the score.

With 25 seconds left before halftime, running back Andrew Bumgardner pounded in from the 2-yard line to finish off an impressive first half effort by the Norsemen. The kick by Forton made it 28-0.

During the first 24 minutes of play, Suttons Bay rolled up 233 yards of total offense - 209 on the ground. Boyne City, which ended its season at 6-4, was held to only 17 yards of offense, all rushing, in the first half.

Suttons Bay ran 44 offensive plays to only 19 by the Ramblers, who managed only one first down in the first half. The Norsemen defense was anchored by Casey Drow who recorded 11 tackles and Bumgardner who was in on eight stops.

Behind the power running of junior running back Robbie Jensen and sophomore fullback Trever Kruzel, who totaled 87 yards on 18 carries, Boyne City scored first in the third quarter. A one-yard plunge by Kruzel made it 28-6 with 8:09 left in the quarter.

But Suttons Bay countered less than 3 minutes later when Ruthkowski connected on a 33-yard scoring strike to Forton to make it 35-6.

A 21-yard scoring run by Ruthkowski on a quarterback keeper and a 63-yard jaunt by running back Ryan Konieczka were sandwiched around a 9-yard Boyne City scoring pass from quarterback Taylor Voice to junior receiver Stephen Redmer.

Anthony Stewart led the Suttons Bay running attack with 91 yards, 67 in the second half, on 10 carries. Peplinski had 76 yards on 14 carries, while Hernandez totaled 73 yards on five rushing attempts, all in the first half.

For the game, Suttons Bay had 374 yards rushing and 56 passing for a total of 430 yards. Thanks to a strong second half effort, Boyne City finished with 232 yards rushing and 53 passing to total 285.

Suttons Bay will host Northwest Conference foes Kingsley on Friday in a rematch of a Sept. 22 game that saw the Norsemen blank the Stags, 16-0.

"We know Kingsley and they'll be as tough to beat as always," predicted Trudeau. "We know they'll give maximum effort and we'll have to give maximum effort to beat them."