Braves Dominate Injury-Plagued Manistique, 44-6

GLADSTONE---The Gladstone Braves scored touchdowns on offense, defense, and special teams, and cruised to a 44-6 win over the Manistique Emeralds Friday in Gladstone. The entire second half was played on the mercy rule running clock.

After a sloppy start, the Braves scored all of their points in the first half and beat the Emeralds in the first meeting between the schools since 1976.

Manistique started the game with just 15 players, and the Emeralds ended with 12 guys as three were injured during the game, including their top two quarterbacks.

Braves quarterback Darin Johnson scored four times, on runs of 18, 10, and 31 yards. He also returned a punt 50 yards for a touchdown.

Senior running back Owen Hanson added a 34-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, and the Braves scored on defense when Cooper Cavadeas sacked Emeralds quarterback Alex Aos in the end zone for a safety.

And a highlight for the Braves came on another sack of Aos, as Christian Creten got the sack and Doby Gillis scooped up a fumble, returning it 55 yards for the touchdown.

C.J. Charlebois kicked five extra points, and the Braves made one two-point conversion as Johnson hit tight end Jared Demeuse on a fake PAT kick play.

"Scoring in every phase of the game, on offense, defense, and special teams, is important because you're getting big contributions from every single phase," Gladstone Coach Jeff Hansen said. "Which means that you have good players playing well in each spot, too, and so I was pretty happy with all of our units tonight."

Manistique (0-2) broke the shutout with a one-yard touchdown run by D.J. Blowers with 2:27 left in the fourth quarter.

The Emeralds lost Aos to injury on the sack that Gillis returned, and backup quarterback Schyler Andersen suffered an injury to his ribs that led to him being taken to OSF St. Francis Hospital for treatment.

Senior Nick Smith was also injured, and then late in the game, senior Kyle Seeley was banged up late in the game.

Gladstone (2-0) hosts Negaunee (0-2) next Friday night. The game will be broadcast on WGKL-FM (105.5), WCHT-AM (600), and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see videos taken by Laura Lamberg, and photos taken by Brenda Crow and Scott Balenger. Click the AUDIO buttons to hear radio replays of Doby Gillis's and Darin Johnson's TD's, and hear interviews with Quinn Downey, Rudy Peterson, Kyle Darmogray, Johnson, and Coach Jeff Hansen.