Early scores help Boyne City roll to win over Charlevoix in battle of unbeatens

BOYNE CITY — Boyne City didn’t get a chance to take the football field in week five.

After preparing all week, a forfeit from Kalkaska hours before the game left the Ramblers at home on a Friday night.

When Boyne City welcomed in rival Charlevoix for a homecoming matchup at Earl Brotherston Field this Friday, the Ramblers made up for lost time.

Boyne jumped on Charlevoix right from the start, hitting a big run to set up a short touchdown, then a defensive score on the ensuing drive gave the Ramblers a two-score advantage they never looked back in, culminating in a 42-14 final.

While it’s a lopsided score in a rivalry game and over 40 points scored against a team that had four straight shutouts heading in, Boyne City coach Dave Suttle was sure his guys would see the endzone often.

“I had a lot of confidence in us scoring points,” said Suttle. “I told my coaching staff, we will score 40 points and we did. I just have that much confidence in my kids right now. I’ve been telling people, we’re going to shock some people. We’ve got some gritty kids that wanted that.”

Suttle has loved coaching in the Boyne-Charlevoix rivalry over the years and looked forward to this one just as much as any other. Friday night also came as homecoming for the Ramblers, making for a packed house.

“It’s the absolute best,” said Suttle on the rivalry. “We told the kids in our weekly meeting that we’re going to get a chance to play a really good football team that’s really well coached and they’re going to test us. Then put on top of it that it’s your rival, it makes it even better. Then you throw homecoming on top of it. We were going to either produce, or not, so there was a lot that worked out for us.”

The win puts Boyne City in the driver seat of a repeat Legends Division championship and moves them to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the league with two games left.

Charlevoix dropped their first game of the season, moving to 5-1 overall and 3-1 within the conference.

For Rayder coach Don Jess, having a young team against a veteran Boyne squad showed, especially after getting behind early against the Ramblers.

“I thought our kids played focused and ready at the start, then we had a few breaks not go our way and at the end of the day, we’ve got four seniors on the team,” said Jess. “It’s a young team and I think some of that showed today. Give (Boyne) credit, though, they played a good game.

“This will be a good learning experience and teaching moments for our guys and we’ll bounce back. It doesn’t feel good right now, but it’s going to be a positive in the long run.”

Boyne City took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter after a 60-yard run from Joey McHugh set up a short Jack Neer score on the ground, then Gavin Hewitt stepped in front of a Rayder screen on the ensuing drive and ran the interception back 20 yards for a touchdown.

Just like that, Boyne had a 14-0 lead that the grew to 21-0 on a Neer to Alex Calcaterra short touchdown before halftime.

“That was it,” said Suttle. “That got the ball rolling and put a little doubt in their mind I think. They were able to move the ball on us a bit, then we were able to jump in front of the (pass) down there. He worked on it all week long and they were ready for it. That’s a huge score. It’s almost like a special teams score. It really gave our kids the life to shut them down.”

Charlevoix found some life in the second half on a two-yard score by Landon Swanson that made it 21-6, but Boyne never let up, adding three more scores before Charlevoix’s Patrick Sterrett later added a 91-yard touchdown late in the fourth.

Neer finished 10 of 16 passing for 111 yards and two scores, then ran for 23 yards and a touchdown. McHugh ran for 160 yards on 18 attempts, Hewitt scored twice on the ground and added four catches for 62 yards and a score, while Calcaterra also scored.

Defensively, McHugh led with 10 tackles and a blocked extra point, Conner Rajkovich had nine tackles, Near and Hewitt each had interceptions and Jacob Johnson had seven stops.

For Charlevoix, Sterrett caught five passes for 136 yards and ran eight times for 51 yards, while adding the kick return score, and Owen Waha had four catches for 78 yards. Brady Jess also finished 12 of 24 passing for 239 yards and two interceptions.

Swanson then led with 14 tackles defensively for the Rayders and Trevor Streeter had six tackles.

Boyne City next heads to Elk Rapids on Friday, Oct. 7 for a non-conference matchup, while Charlevoix will take Friday off and welcome in Manistique on Saturday, Oct. 8. The game will come with a 2 p.m. kickoff.

Suttle obviously likes how is team is playing at the moment, though wants his guys just focused on finishing things up in conference play.

“We feel good about where we’re at,” he said. “We’ve got two more to go. We’ll get back to work Monday and get ready for that big game.”

Contact Sports Editor Drew Kochanny at dkochanny@petoskeynews.com. Follow him on Twitter, @DrewKochanny, and Instagram, @drewkochanny

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Early scores help Boyne City roll to win over Charlevoix in battle of unbeatens