S-B whips White Cloud, preps for playoff 'tuneup'.
Suttons Bay will have its hands full when the Mio Thunderbolts come to town Friday night.

Mio, co-champion of the North Star League, is 7-1 overall and is coming off a decisive 51-6 win over Hale last week.

“It’s a good tuneup for the playoffs,” said coach Joe Trudeau of his team, which was ranked fourth among Division VI teams statewide following a 54-29 win over visiting White Cloud Friday. “It’ll be a challenge.”

The Norse started strong against White Cloud, but faltered and opened the door to a surge by the Indians before pulling away.

The Norsemen got on the board when Ryan Konieczka, who set a single-game school rushing record for the Norsemen, scored on a 5-yard run in the first quarter. Jeff Lott’s extra point made it 7-0, Suttons Bay. The Norse made it 14-0 later in the quarter on Andrew Bumgardner’s 3-yard scoring run.

A fumble by the Norse on their next possession early in the second quarter set up a 5-yard touchdown run by White Cloud’s Isaiah Trice. The point-after attempt failed, but White Cloud knotted the score at 14 just 11 seconds later with a touchdown and 2-point conversion.

Suttons Bay threatened to score on the next possession but stalled at the Indian 8-yard-line, due in part to a season-ending injury to Eric Hernandez when a White Cloud player fell on the Norse running back. Trudeau said Hernandez dislocated a wrist on the play.

The Indians got the ball back, and with 36 seconds before intermission took their first lead on a 21-yard scoring pass to give White Cloud a 21-14 lead.

Suttons Bay lost Nalen Brockman to a broken collarbone the previous week and Anthony Stewart, who sat out the first half while nursing an ankle injury, was called into action after Hernandez was lost for the year.

The Norse marched down the field on their first possession of the second half before Stewart scored on a 6-yard run. A bad snap on the extra-point attempt prevented Suttons Bay from tying the score so the Indians maintained a 21-20 lead.

Moments later, White Cloud returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown but missed the extra point. A Norsemen roughing-the-kicker penalty gave White Cloud a second chance, and they made good on a 2-point try for a 29-20 lead. The rest of the game belonged to the Norsemen, however.

Suttons Bay got the ball back with six minutes left in the third and culminated a drive with a 3-yard scoring run by Stewart. The 2-point conversion was good, cutting the Indian lead to 29-28.

The Norsemen defense stepped up on the next White Cloud possession and gave the Norsemen the lead for good when Konieczka intercepted a pass and returned it for a 27-yard touchdown. The missed extra-point try failed, but Suttons Bay led 34-29.

“We controlled them from there,” Trudeau said, adding there were two more Suttons Bay interceptions.

Stewart scored twice in the fourth quarter to put the game away. A 2-point conversion failed on the first, but Lott’s extra point was good on the second to increase the Norse advantage to 47-29. Late in the game, Isaiah Nelson scored from the two for the 54-29 final.

Suttons Bay rushed 80 times for 484 yards — 264 which were credited to Konieczka on 21 carries, a new school record. Stewart had 140 yards on 24 carries and Andrew Bumgardner had 50 yards on six carries.

Defensively, Kody Herman posted 8 stops and two interceptions; Bumgardner and Anthony Hang each had 7 tackles.