Football: A fun opener

Just hours after honoring Jerome with a pregame memorial, International Falls used a magic fourth-quarter comeback to help energize a program that missed the playoffs last year and hadn’t won a season-opening game since 2005.

Brandon Richards’ punishing 13-yard touchdown run with 33 seconds to play capped the comeback and sent the Broncos home booming with enthusiasm.

“All for Roger,” said Broncos senior Shawn Filipiak, who played a huge role down the stretch in the fourth quarter.

Jerome, who is also pictured on the cover of this season’s football program, was lost June 16 after suffering a massive stroke. He was fittingly dubbed a “community member, Bronco coach and friend,” on the cover of the program.

“It comes down to one thing — our kids never quit,” Broncos head coach Jay Boyle said. “ ... Towards the end there we were playing 11, 12 guys. Ironman football, and they just wanted it.”

Cloquet — a Class 4A school, the defending Sea-Range Conference champs and the reigning top seed out of Section 7AAAA — dressed 65 players. The Broncos dressed 23.

“All I know is I just wanted to win,” said Richards, who finished with 62 yards on 17 carries. “Get out, get a win for the team. It’s my senior year. My last shot.”

Richards was the only Bronco to finish with over 29 yards rushing, while sophomore quarterback Gunnar Anderson — making his first career start — finished 11-for-24 with 107 yards and a score. His favorite target was Filipiak, who caught five passes for 72 yards. Marcus Zawchenuk had four receptions for 27 yards.

The Lumberjacks (0-1) were led by senior fullback Stefan Pease, who rushed for 121 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries. Junior quarterback Kellin Lamirande rushed for 76 yards and a score, while finishing 6 of 12 for 156 yards and a touchdown through the air.

Cloquet made too many mistakes, however, and the Broncos had just enough juice in the end.

“They deserved it. They played their butts off the whole game and kept coming and coming,” Cloquet head coach Tom Lenarz said.

Sports Stadium turned quiet when Pease scampered 56 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the second half to put the visitors up 19-6, but just like Boyle said, the Broncos never quit.

One drive after turning it over on downs in the third quarter, the Broncos rattled off a 19-play drive that ended when Chris Steinbach lost a fumble at the 4 yard line. Not to worry, though, as Steinbach redeemed himself on the next play when he recovered a fumble by Pease. Two plays later, Anderson found Steinbach for a 5-yard touchdown connection with 6:18 to play to cut the lead to 19-14.

It wouldn’t be the last big play from the young signal caller.

Broncos senior Ethan Johns blew up a Lumberjacks run on third and 3 on the ensuing drive, forcing a 3-and-out and a punt.

The Broncos got the ball on their own 38 with 4:09 left.

Insert fourth-quarter magic here.

After Steinbach got just enough on a third-and-5 run, Anderson hit Filipiak for 13 yards on fourth-and-10. He hit Filipiak again for 18 yards on a fourth-and-16 with 45 seconds remaining. Filipiak caught the ball in the middle of the field two yards shy of the first down, but juked his way down to the Cloquet 13. Richards plowed his way into the end zone for the go-ahead score on the next play.

“Without him, we don’t win the game,” Filipiak said about Richards. “He had some awesome runs.”

And the Broncos churned out an awesome victory.

Lamirande converted a fourth-and-11 with a long run from their own 35 on the final drive, but time ran out, sending the Broncos into a raucous celebration.

“That was so cool,” Anderson said. “I was so happy. That capped it off. Icing on the cake. I didn’t know what to do. Yell. Scream. I didn’t know.”

The contest didn’t count toward the Sea-Range Conference standings — the teams play again Sept. 24 in Cloquet — but that hardly meant anything after this memorable opener.

“That was so much fun,” Anderson said.

Game notes

• It was noticeably the first game of the year for Cloquet — and the officiating crew. The Lumberjacks, who returned only two players on offense, had 11 penalties, including 10 false starts. Four of the first seven plays from scrimmage for Cloquet were false starts.

The officials also made a mistake on Cloquet’s final drive as they failed to notice the Broncos had 12 players on the field for two of the final four plays.

• Johns led all Bronco defenders with 35 defensive points for the game, while Steinbach had 33 points. No one else had more than 13.5.

• The officials were wearing black pants, a change this season by the Minnesota State High School League after years of wearing white pants.

• Nick Bujold, a senior in street clothes on the sidelines (wearing No. 14), is going to try and kick for the Broncos. Bujold, who also runs cross country, has played soccer since he was 4 years old.

I. Falls 20, Cloquet 19

C 7 6 6 0—19

IF 0 6 0 14—20

First Quarter

C — Kaleb Kadelbach 73 pass from Kellin Lamirande (Trent Moe kick), 11:29.

Second Quarter

C — Lamirande 63 run (kick blocked), 2:40.

IF — Alex Bruess 4 run (pass failed), 10:21.

Third Quarter

C — Stefan Pease 56 run (kick failed), :18.

Fourth Quarter

IF — Chris Steinbach 5 pass from Gunnar Anderson (Anderson to Shawn Filipiak), 5:42.

IF — Brandon Richards 13 run (run failed), 11:27.