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Karsten throws 6 TDs as Hurons top Owls

ROGERS CITY-A strong performance on both sides of the ball came at the right time for the Rogers City football team.

Senior quarterback Caleb Karsten threw six touchdowns passes, the Hurons defense recovered six fumbles and Rogers City dominated Oscoda during a 62-34 win on Friday at Gilpin Field.

The win came at the right time for the Hurons (2-3) after they suffered two straight losses by a combined 78-20.

“This is going to give them such a boost going into Mio (next week) and they just want to keep rolling it,” Rogers City coach Cory Malocha said. “They’re hungry, they want it.”

Oscoda intercepted Karsten on Rogers City’s first drive, but the Hurons’ defense pressured the Owls from the get-go. Oscoda fumbled on its first offensive play and the ball was recovered by the Hurons.

It was the first of four fumbles by the Owls in the first half and Rogers City converted all four of those recoveries into touchdowns. The Hurons opened up a 28-0 lead before the Owls finally scored and Rogers City led at halftime 28-6.

Karsten finished the game with six touchdowns against one interception and was 18-of-28 passing for 333 yards. He found three different receivers for two touchdowns each and hooked up with six different receivers during the game.

Gavin Veselenak led Rogers City with five catches for 125 yards and two touchdowns. Tristan Baller had six catches for 92 yards and two scores and Matt Altman had two catches for 45 yards and two touchdowns.

“We told him we’ve got so many good receivers on this team that we need to spread it out,” Malocha said. “Their best cornerback can’t cover all of our receivers.”

Rogers City converted its first fumble recovery into a touchdown with 5:34 left in the first quarter when Karsten found Altman in the right corner of the end zone for a 17-yard score on fourth down. Baller added a two-point conversion catch.

The Owls were stuffed on a 4th-and-2 attempt on their next drive by Jacob Hein and after a Rogers City drive went nowhere, Hein recovered a fumble and the Hurons marched again. This drive ended in an eight yard run to paydirt from Michael Karsten.

Karsten had 66 yards on 11 carries and Baller had 67 yards on seven carries.

The Hurons turned two more fumble recoveries into touchdowns before the end of the half. Veselenak ran in from four yards out with 8:38 left in the half and Caleb Karsten found Baller for a two yard strike with 3:51 left, helping the Hurons take a 28-0 lead.

Oscoda finally scored with 1:19 left when Travis Lamrock found paydirt on a one-yard scamper, but the Owls’ first half was anything but smooth. The four fumbles came on a combined 10 plays and two of them came on the first play of a new series.

“We worked on defense all week; defense, defense, defense. They still got us on the outside. That’s our week point. But we’ll work on that next week for Mio,” Malocha said. “They were focused tonight right from the get-go and they worked hard all week.”

The Owls were also dealt a blow when quarterback Nathan Nagel was knocked out of the game on Hein’s fourth down stop. That didn’t stop Oscoda from continuing to play hard in the third quarter however. A long drive to open the second half ended with a four yard touchdown scamper from Nick Cochell and on their next drive, the Owls scored again on a seven yard run by Lamrock to make it 36-20 with 4:57 left in the the third quarter.

But the Hurons didn’t slow down either. Sandwiched between Oscoda’s two scores was a 80-yard kick off return for a touchdown by Veselenak. Caleb Karsten continued to move the chains through the air as well, finding Veselenak (17 yards), Baller (28 yards) and Veselenak again (49 yards) on three consecutive passes to put Rogers City up 56-28 early in the fourth quarter.

Oscoda scored on a 75-yard kickoff return touchdown by Grant Huebel just before the end of the third quarter and scored again with 10:45 to play on a 14 yard run by David Alexander. His score made it 56-34.

Alexander led the Owls with 147 yards on 14 carries and the Owls gained 318 offensive yards.

Caleb Karsten found Altman for a 28 yard strike with 2:52 left and the Hurons sealed the deal further when Andrew Radke recovered a fumble, the sixth of the game, just four plays later.

James Andersen can be reached via email at sports@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5694. Follow James on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.

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