Ishpeming, MI – September 14, 2018 – Ishpeming Hematites were victorious in their fourth game of the 2018 season last Friday night, prevailing against the Westwood Patriots by a score of 44 – 36. The week prior, the Hematites beat the Norway Knights 46 – 19.
In the first quarter, the teams got off to a slow start. With equal power from each team, the first few minutes did not prove to be very exciting. Finally, Eric Anderson from Westwood scored a touchdown resulting in a score of 14 – 0. Retaliating quickly, Hunter Smith of the Hematites brought the score up to 14 – 8 with Westwood still in the lead.
Gavin Sundburg broke through an immense offensive line and made a touchdown, bringing the score to a tie of 14 – 14. The teams seem to be of equal strength, as it stayed like that for quite some time. The teams butted heads the entire quarter, but at the last second Zack Jandreau made a touchdown. This brought the score up to 20 – 14, they then got the two-point conversion bringing it to 22 – 14 with 5.4 seconds on the clock. The Hematites took a knee to finish out the quarter.
The first few minutes of the third quarter were pretty still in terms of the score, but so exciting to watch. The teams were at each others throats, desperate to win against their hometown rivals. They ran the ball up and down the field until Drake Sundburg scored, leading 30 – 14. Almost immediately after, Nathan Beckman from the Patriots ran 77 yards to bring the score to 30 – 22.
In the fourth quarter, they were at a standstill. Impressively, neither team was able to penetrate the others defenses early on. Things began to heat up at the middle of the quarter starting with the Hematites bringing the score up to 36 – 22. A few minutes later, Jake Adriano scored for the Patriots, bringing the score up to 36 – 30. With one minute on the clock left, Gavin Sundburg of the Hematites scored and also got the two-point conversion, bringing it to 44 – 30. During the last play of the game, the Patriots scored but it didn’t make any difference. The game ended with a score of 44 – 36, the Hematites being the victors. Both teams played an incredible game!
The Hematites will be playing again on September 21st against the Negaunee Miners. Listen everything at 98.3 WRUP and online at wrup.com.
