Bruce is a better opponent, but Pirates get ahead and stay ahead

GILMAN 50, BRUCE 12

As expected, the Gilman Pirates got more fight Friday from their opponent in week two of the eight-player football season, but the Bruce Red Raiders learned the same hard lesson Lake Holcombe did in week one.

If you give the Pirates great field position, they will bury you.

All three phases contributed to keeping the ball on Bruce’s side of the field throughout the first and Gilman took full advantage, racing out to a 44-6 halftime lead and ending up with a 50-12 win.

The Pirates got three touchdowns from Troy Duellman, two rushing and one receiving, Dawson Krizan threw for 115 yards and three scores and one of those passing scores was a 50-yard catch and run by Chad Konsella during Gilman’s big first half.

The win, combined with Thorp’s 30-20 loss at McDonell Central, vaulted Gilman to number one in this week’s state eight-player WisSports.net/coaches state rankings.

“They helped us with one fumble, a kick they didn’t handle and a snap over the punter,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “Kind of a repeat of some things that happened with Holcombe and we were able to take advantage of those.”

The defense set up Gilman’s first short field by starting the game with a fourthdown stop of the Red Raiders just shy of midfield. On third and two, Caleb Marion and Konsella held Bruce’s Ronan Garcia to a 1-yard gain, then Marion crashed from his right end position, got Andrew Frederick’s legs and the middle of the line did the rest, holding him to no gain at Bruce’s 48.

Gilman overcame two penalties –– a theme throughout the game –– on its way to the end zone. The Pirates got there on a 15-yard run by Duellman, who eluded a couple of tacklers and kept his balance just long enough to dive to the right pylon. Krizan’s two-point conversion run made it 8-0.

Bruce gambled on fourth and long from its own 40 and lost, getting just a 3-yard scramble from Frederick. Two plays later, Krizan went around left end, then cut back to the middle of the field on a 38-yard touchdown run that opened up a 14-0 lead with 5:09 left in the quarter. Bruce got two first downs on its next drive, but a short completion from quarterback Levi Nyehagen to Spencer Hautamaki went bad for the Red Raiders when Tony Syryczuk forced Hautamaki to fumble and Trevor Vick was there to pounce on it for the Pirates at Bruce’s 42.

This time, Gilman overcame three penalties and a second-and-35 situation. A swing pass to the left to Duellman picked up 20 yards, then Duellman caught another pass on a crossing pattern, going left to right. He caught Krizan’s pass at the 10 and completed the 20 yard score and two-point run for a 22-0 lead with 10:18 left in the second quarter.

“I was happy with the balance offensively,” Rosemeyer said. “We threw three touchdowns on four completions. The passing game/running game combination was good.”

Dawson Grunseth recovered the ensuing muffed kickoff at Bruce’s 28 and the Pirates capped a six-play drive with Duellman’s 3-yard touchdown run. A high snap on a Bruce punt led to a 17-yard loss for Hautamaki and Gilman taking over possession on the Red Raiders’ 25. On the next play, Krizan hit Tony Syryczuk with a short pass in the right flat and Syryczuk did the rest, cutting back toward the middle for a 25-yard touchdown and a 36-0 lead.

The Red Raiders countered with a 60yard touchdown drive that took just over four minutes off the clock and ended with Frederick scoring from 25 yards out for the first points given up by Gilman this season. That drive showed Bruce’s grindit- out ability the Pirates were concerned about coming in.

“They play with a lot more physicality than we’ve seen so far,” Rosemeyer said. “They did do some things where they moved the ball at times on us. In the second quarter they put together that nice drive. Coach (Tom) Tallier made some good adjustments at halftime just to crash our backside end. They had spread us out with an overload with a little I-formation, kind of an unbalanced look. We just crashed the backside end to make sure every gap was covered, otherwise they were just gashing us up the middle basically.” Gilman answered Bruce’s touchdown with Konsella leaping to catch a high pass from Krizan 20 yards downfield and then scooting the final 30 yards to score with 52 seconds left in the half.

“They kind of had us outmanned where we didn’t have enough blocking, but Dawson was able to get the pass off,” Rosemeyer said. “They rushed four and we only had three blocking so we had to make a tough pass and we were able to do that.”

Konsella scored again three plays into the second half on a 10-yard run that came one play after Syryczuk rambled 37 yards on a simple quick hitter up the middle.

From there, Gilman’s reserves finished out the running-clock second half. Bruce scored the game’s final points on a 1-yard Garcia run with 2:42 left.

The Pirates finished with 257 rushing yards on 32 attempts for an 8.0 average per carry. Duellman had 82 of those yards on 10 carries. Krizan had 62 yards on six carries and Syryczuk had 72 yards on five attempts.

Krizan was four of six in passing with three of the completions going for touchdowns. Bruce finished with 159 rushing yards on 35 attempts, led by Frederick’s 92 yards on 20 carries.

No team would expect to be perfect just two games into the season and Rosemeyer said there are things the Pirates need to correct as they build toward some big games on the back end of their schedule.

“We had some penalty issues, some holding, a facemask, an unsportsmanlike conduct,” he said. “We were able to overcome them but obviously that’s a dangerous situation we’re putting ourselves into. First and long, second and long, whatever the case may be. We have to be careful on that.

“Offensively we are still not always blocking the right people,” he added. Our double teams have to get better. Sustaining a block at the point of attack can get better. Double teams or one-on-one we have to get some better angles on our block. There are just some little things that stick out where we’re losing the potential for a big play by not finishing a block.”

Defensively, he said making sure the edges are maintained, always a focus of Gilman’s defenses, is also something the Pirates will continue to stress.

This week, the Pirates will aim to make those improvements in a 7 p.m. non-conference matchup at Cornell. The young Chiefs have struggled early, losing 44-0 to Athens and 74-0 last week to Alma Center Lincoln.

“We need to stay solid in every phase of the game, worry about ourselves and get better with what we do this week,” Rosemeyer said.

Dawson Krizan

Medford’s Grace Holmes keeps her balance while quickly reacting and returning a shot over the net during number-two doubles play Tuesday. Holmes and Indya Mann were beaten 6-3, 6-3 in this match by Rhinelander’s Brooke Sisel and Evelyn Sawyer. Holmes and Mann won later in the day in Medford’s dual meet with Bloomer.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS