Friday night featured another early lead for Falls’ football team and ended with a lopsided loss.

The injury-riddled Broncos, who had some starters out of action after being hurt the previous week at Proctor, fell at home to Cloquet, 33-16.

“We had a lot of young guys in,” said Falls head coach Jay Boyle. “(At) the beginning I was very proud of how those freshmen and sophomores played.”

Falls scored first with 4:58 left in the opening quarter when junior quarterback Gunnar Anderson connected with senior Josh Owen on a six-yard touchdown pass. A pass by junior running back Nick Janttie to Owen on the two-point conversion gave the Broncos an 8-0 lead.

Cloquet narrowed Falls’ lead to a point with less than a minute in the first quarter when running back Brad Butcher scored on a five-yard run and Trent Moe added the extra point.

The Lumberjacks, who tallied 364 total yards on offense, compared to 283 for the Broncos, took the lead with 5:19 left before halftime. Cloquet quarterback Kellin Lamirande threw a four-yard touchdown pass to Zach Peterson. Moe’s extra point put the Lumberjacks in front by 14-8 at intermission.

Cloquet extended its lead in the second half with three more touchdowns, the first of which was a 59-yard run by Cole Gregg-Johnson.

The Lumberjacks tallied 282 rushing yards, compared to 119 for the Broncos. However, Falls doubled Cloquet in the air with 164 passing yards, compared to the opposition’s 82.

“We threw the ball well at times, but we still haven’t got anything going on up front with our offensive line,” Boyle said. “Football is a game that’s won at the line of scrimmage, and we lost the line-of-scrimmage battle (Friday) by far.”

The loss dropped the Broncos’ season record to 0-3 in the Sea-Range Conference and 0-4 overall. Falls will be back in action 7 p.m. Friday at Hermantown, which is 3-0 in conference play and 4-0 overall.

“We have a tough one coming up this week with Hermantown...,” Boyle said. “When we get back for Homecoming (on Oct. 7) is when we should be coming back the healthiest.”

Cloquet 33, I. Falls 16

C 7-7-12-7—33

IF 8-0-0-8—16

Scoring:

IF — Josh Owen 6 pass from Gunnar Anderson (Owen pass from Nick Janttie)

C — Brad Butcher 5 run (Trent Moe kick)

C — Zach Peterson 4 pass from Kellin Lamirande (Moe kick)

C — Cole Gregg-Johnson 59 run (kick blocked)

C — Gregg-Johnson 2 run (run failed)

C — Butcher 5 run (Moe kick)

IF — Janttie 27 pass from Anderson (Owen pass from Janttie)