Daily Press/Avery Bundgaard Ontonagon’s Jaden Weisinger (22) runs for a couple of yards before being tackled by Rapid River’s Noah Gustafson Friday at Rapid River.

RAPID RIVER — The Rapid River football team dug out a comeback victory over Ontonagon Friday night winning 26-22.

The Rockets keep on rolling as this marks their fourth straight win to open the season.

“I was very proud of my guys as they had a great week of practice,” said Rapid River coach Steve Ostrenga. “It’s big to have guys on the same page and they sure were tonight.”

The Rockets opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 5-yard touchdown pass from Brent Lundquist to Logan Hardwick.

The Gladiators came right back and scored a touchdown of their own taking a 8-6 lead into the second quarter.

Ontonagon scored the first points of the second quarter but the Rapid River answered with an 85-yard kick return for a touchdown from Lucas Sundling.

The Gladiators responded with another touchdown but the Rockets put a drive together late in the second quarter capped off by a quarterback sneak by Lundquist to cut the deficit to 22-20 heading into halftime.

“We had some big plays in the first half,” said Ostrenga. “We had to shut down their run game. We gave up chunks of yards but no big gains.”

There was no scoring in the third quarter but Rapid River pulled ahead late in the fourth quarter as Lundquist hit Hardwick for a 23-yard touchdown pass with 1:28 to go in the game to take a 26-22 lead.

Ontonagon was driving late but a Nathan Olsen interception gave the ball back to the Rockets.

The Gladiators thought they were going to get the ball back with 15 seconds left but Rapid River faked a punt and gained a first down on a 25-yard gain from Sundling that sealed the game.

“Our defense played well and the three interceptions were huge,” said Ostrenga. “We had some drives where we shot ourselves in the foot. We got some big stops late once we got that touchdown late to go ahead.”

Lundquist had 156 yards on 12-17 passing and two touchdowns.

Sundling had 93 yards rushing on 14 carries and LaCasse had 10 carries for 57 yards.

Hardwick led the Rockets in receiving with 5 catches for 71 yards and two touchdowns and Daren Landis added three receptions for 31 yards.

Rapid River will head to Powers Friday to take on Carney-Nadeau.

The summary:

Ontonagon 8 14 0 0 — 22

Rapid River 6 14 0 6 — 26