U.P. high school football team ready for season

ISHPEMING — Although the Hematite’s lost their first game of the season against Iron Mountain, they bounced back during their second game against the Manistique Emeralds.

After a slow start from the offense, the team eventually picked up speed and scored fifty points within two quarters. Once the team established a running game, there was no stopping them with running back Isaac Olson having a total of 180 rushing yards. The final score of the game ending at 50-7.

Here’s a postgame reaction from Coach Jeff Olson.

“We just got to get back on the winning track after the first game, it was a long time since we lost and Iron Mountain’s a great football team so we wanted to get back to the winning attitude. That really speaks a lot of volumes, when you believe you can win and, you have a better chance and you play confident and fast and that’s what we want to get to,” said Ishpeming High school football coach, Jeff Olson.

With a week off, the team has plenty of time to work on both their offense and defense. While throwing the ball has not seemed to be a problem with only one in-completion in the past two games, running the ball is the biggest area in need of improvement.

Keeping the team focused this week is also one of the coach’s goals.

“Now it’s just keeping them focused without a game, that’s difficult. We’re going to rest a couple bruises but maybe add a few things in to our game plan and make sure we’re not as predictable. There’s a lot of things we can do this week and the big things is to not get stale without a game,” said Olson.

The Hematite’s next game is on September 16th against their neighborly rivals, Westwood High School.