STEPHENSON — Everything looks easy for Montell Glover on the football field.

Glover totaled 307 yards on the ground and through the air while scoring five touchdowns to lead No. 1 state-ranked Stephenson past Ontonagon 56-14 on Friday.

“Montell just makes it look easy,” Stephenson coach Logan Carlson said. “He makes a lot of big plays and was huge for us tonight.”

The Eagles had their hands full early as the Gladiators came ready to play in the first quarter.

After both teams went three-and-out on their opening drives, Alex Hanson picked off Gladiator quarterback Dustin Howard and returned it 16 yards to give Stephenson the ball at its own 46.

Four plays later Trevor Topper hooked up with Glover for a 36-yard touchdown pass. Glover then caught the two-point pass to put the Eagles up 8-0 with 4:14 left in the first.

Ontonagon came marching back on a nine-play 53-yard drive. Jake Witt hauled in a 33-yard pass from Howard and followed it up with a 16-yard touchdown reception to tie the game at eight with six seconds left in the first quarter.

The tie was short-lived though as Glover took the first play of the Eagles next possession 62 yards for a touchdown to extend the lead to 14-8 to end the first.

The Gladiators got another drive going, led by runs of nine and 14 yards by Jaden Weisigner and were down to the Eagles 12.

A defensive stand by the Eagles stopped the Gladiators, but they were given another chance as Jesus Becerra fumbled and the Gladiators recovered at the Eagles 17.

Four straight plays of minimal yardage stalled the Gladiators once again, giving the Eagles the ball at their own 13.

“Our defense really stepped up,” Carlson said. “They had two opportunities to score and possibly take the lead and we shut them down.”

Becerra started the drive off with runs of seven and 22 yards and Glover rushed for 14 before blowing past the defense once again for a 42-yard scoring run to extend Stephenson’s lead to 22-8 with 3:13 left in the half.

Stephenson got the ball back with 49 seconds left in the half.

Managing the clock to perfection, Glover rushed for 11 and 16 yards to move the ball to the Gladiator 39.

After a 26-yard run by Becerra down to the Ontonagon 13, Becerra ran once again for eight yards before Topper hooked up with Bryce Hornick on a five-yard TD pass.

That put Stephenson up 30-8 with 11 seconds left in the half and all the momentum in their favor.

“They’re fast and they can score in a hurry and we found that out in the first half,” Ontonagon coach Ben Mayer said. “We had a couple opportunities to tie or take the lead, but couldn’t capitalize and that hurt.”

Glover hauled in touchdown catches of 41 and 52 yards in the second half to put the game away.

Overall, Glover ran for 167 yards on 11 carries with two touchdowns. He also hauled in five passes for 140 yards and three touchdowns.

The Eagles defense was nearly unstoppable. 

Jeff Doboy led Stephenson with 14 tackles. Becerra finished with 12 and Hornick added seven.

“The pressure our defensive got on them was huge. They played an excellent game,” said Carlson. “I thought Trevor Topper threw a nice ball and really stepped up as a leader for us tonight.”

Stephenson improves to 6-0 with the victory. Ontonagon falls to 3-2.