Gladstone Defense Makes Statement In Sault, 34-6

SAULT STE. MARIE---Gladstone High School football coach Jeff Hansen has been getting tired of his team falling behind by two touchdowns (or more) in their recent games. So, he told his players that it was important to jump to an early lead Friday night in Sault Ste. Marie.

The guys took that message to heart, scoring touchdowns on their first two possessions and cruising to a 34-6 win over the Sault on Blue Devil Homecoming.

"I thought that we did a good job in several areas that we were focusing on this week," Hansen said. "Fast start, regardless of what side of the ball. Winning the turnover battle. And essentially playing good defense. It was a very good defensive effort by our guys."

"Our hit-intensity was extremely high. Overall, in every phase of the game, I think that this is the most complete football game that we've played."

"We just made it a priority before the game that our defense has been good, but not as good as we know we can be," Braves junior Owen Hanson said. "We made it a priority to get better, and go out there and give everything on every play."

Gladstone jumped to the early lead just 61 seconds into the game when quarterback Darin Johnson dumped one off to sophomore receiver Rudy Peterson. Peterson made his way up field 54 yards for a touchdown on the second play from scrimmage.

The Blue Devils got a couple of first downs, but the Braves stopped them on three straight incomplete passes at the 35 yard-line.

Then it was a steady diet of Casey Wolf. The senior running back broke off three ten-yard runs, then caught a pass of the same distance as Johnson scrambled out of pressure. Johnson also passed to Jared Demeuse on that drive, and Wolf scored the ten-yard touchdown run.

Both offenses sputtered from there, and it was 12-0 at halftime. And it was still 12-0 early in the fourth quarter when Austin Demeuse recovered a fumble deep in Blue Devil territory. Five plays later, on 4th and 1 at the two yard-line, Johnson snuck across the goal line for the touchdown with 9:32 left in the game.

The two-point pass to Spencer Husbye made it 20-0.

The Blue Devils, though, completed a couple of long passes to get on the board. Quarterback Ryley Alaspa found Dalton Peyton in triple-coverage, and he came down with it for a 34-yard gain. Then on the next play, Alaspa passed 35 yards to Tristian Johnston for the score.

It was 20-6, but that's as close as the Sault (1-5) would get, as Wolf scored on runs of 13 and 53 yards to put the game away. He had 208 yards on 28 carries and those three scores.

"The last two touchdowns, he wasn't gonna be denied," Hansen said.

The Braves defense held the Blue Devils to 191 yards of total offense.

"It's definately a treat (to win on Sault's Homecoming)," Braves senior Austin Demeuse said. "I told the defense that I didn't want them to score in the first half, and we accomplished that. And after we went into the second half with Kyle Egner down, it kind of pumped us up on offense to go out there and score as much as we could on them."

Egner was injured in what appeared to be a helmet-to-helmet hit, and he was taken to War Memorial Hospital to be looked at. No penalty flag was thrown on the play.

Besides Wolf's 208 yards, Johnson completed 6-of-8 passes for 127 yards.

Gladstone (3-3) returns home next Friday to battle the 5-1 Escanaba Eskymos. Game time is 7:00. It will be broadcast live on WGKL-FM (105.5) and WCHT-AM (600).

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