Northstars drop exciting game vs. Shell Lake

HURLEY — Hurley returned home for the first time since Week 1 Friday night and put on a show for its fans, but Shell Lake senior quarterback Alex Marcoux couldn’t be stopped as he led his team to the 34-28 win.

He rushed for 227 yards and two touchdowns and he threw for another 101 yards and three scores. The elusive running back was tough to bring down all night.

“He’s one of the best players I’ve seen in a long time,” Hurley coach Chris Edyvean said. “I think it was his speed, his elusiveness, kind of a mix of both. He’s a strong runner, too, he ran through tackles.”

Edyvean was happy how his team responded from a lopsided loss the week before to Suring, and when facing a 28-14 deficit in the third quarter. The Northstars just had some issues on the defensive end.

“The boys played really hard, we just had an issue tackling,” Edyvean said. “I think if we could wrap up and finish our tackles, it would have been a completely different ending.”

The defense played physical in this one, but Hurley tackled better in the first two games of the season, he said.

“Unfortunately when you come across players like that (Marcoux), that have speed and elusiveness, it’s a lot harder to tackle,” he said. “You’re not going to get away with the arm tackles or the up high tackles.”

On the bright side, Hurley had faced two weeks without a game and they played strong competition in both Suring and Shell Lake.

“They’re going to get us playoff ready,” Edyvean said.

Shell Lake scored at the end of the first half and right away to start the second half to go by two touchdowns, 28-14. Marcoux had multiple big runs on both drives, including one on the first half score where he fumbled the snap in the shotgun formation and dodged three or four tacklers for a 22-yard gain.

Hurley answered though with some good drives of its own.

The Northstars went 62 yards on 10 plays on the next drive with Bodyn Gilbertson running a yard for the touchdown. Charlie Haanen’s conversion made it 28-22.

Haanen made a big defensive play on the next Shell Lake drive.

Marcoux went back to pass but scrambled with no one open. He was 29 yards downfield when Haanen caught him and forced a fumble on the tackle that Gavyn Koski recovered. It took the Northstars five plays to go 65 yards with Max Caudill running 38 for the touchdown that tied the game at 28 with 52 seconds left.

Marcoux won the game, though, on the very next possession. Shell Lake committed a penalty on fourth and 2 and went back to punt on fourth and 7. A holding call made it fourth and 17. He didn’t punt it, though, he took off running, broke a tackle and ran 57 yards to the Hurley 2.

Some good Hurley defense and a penalty made it third and goal from the 15. Marcoux rolled left and the defense came with him. Receiver Curtis Mullenix went the other way and Marcoux found him wide open for the touchdown. The conversion failed and Shell Lake led 34-28.

Hurley started at its own 22 and picked up four first downs to get to the Shell Lake 23. They didn’t get any further, though, and they turned it over on downs with 1:29 left.

The Northstars still get their forfeit wins the last two weeks when it comes to playoff seeding. Wins may have helped Hurley, but the losses shouldn’t hurt them.

“Shell Lake’s not a playoff eligible team, so it doesn’t matter that they beat us, they’re not getting any points,” Edyvean said. “With Suring, they may get a higher seed over us because the points they get off our wins.”

Caudill led Hurley with 120 yards on 20 carries and Haanen was close behind with 118 yards on 18 carries.

The Northstars are back to their regular slate of conference games with Chequamegon coming to Hurley for a 7 p.m. game Friday.

The Screaming Eagles won at Cornell 58-30 but lost all of their other games, including to Northwoods East foes Three Lakes-Phelps (64-0), Phillips (46-0) and Rib Lake (34-12).

“Like any week, you gotta prepare for them like we would with anyone,” Edyvean said. “They’re not going to be as high caliber an opponent as our last four games between Suring, Phillips, Wabeno and Shell Lake. But you can’t overlook anybody. The moment you do, they can walk in and upset you.”

It’s homecoming for Hurley, and their second straight home game after three in a row on the road.

“It should be a good game, hopefully we get a good turnout,” he said. “I was really happy with how the crowd was towards the end of the game there at home and hopefully we can continue that atmosphere and continue to build that through the remainder of the season.”

Shell Lake 6 16 6 6 — 34

Hurley 6 8 14 0 — 28

First Quarter

SL — Brennan Shafer 66 pass from Alex Marcoux (run failed), 6:48

Hur — Charlie Haanen 3 run (run failed), 1:49

Second Quarter

SL — Marcoux 3 run (Marcoux run), 9:17

Hur — Haanen 20 run (Bodyn Gilbertson run), 1:11

SL — Curtis Mullenix 5 pass from Marcoux (Marcoux run) , :17

Third Quarter

SL — Marcoux 5 run (run failed), 7:40

Hur — Gilbertson 1 run (Haanen run), 2:58

Hur — Max Caudill 38 run (run failed), :52

Fourth Quarter

SL — Mullenix 15 pass from Marcoux (pass failed), 7:23

SL Hur

First downs 11 18

Rushes-yards 31-288 57-313

Comp-Att-Int 5-8-0 2-4-0

Passing 101 31

Total yards 389 344

Penalties-yards 12-98 3-34

Fumbles-lost 3-1 2-0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Shell Lake, Alex Marcoux 18-227, Curtis Mullenix 1-21, Liam Russell 7-17, Parker Kelley 2-12, Brennan Shafer 3-11. Hurley, Max Caudill 20-120, Charlie Haanen 18-118, Bodyn Gilbertson 15-49, Landen Christoferson 4-26.

PASSING — Shell Lake, Alex Marcoux 5-8-101-0. Hurley, Max Caudill 2-4-31-0.

RECEIVING — Shell Lake, Brennan Shafer 1-66, Curtis Mullenix 4-35. Hurley, Landen Christoferson 1-21, Charlie Haanen 1-10.