With the win, the Copper Bowl trophy returns to the trophy case on Gundlach Road after it slipped out of the Gremlins’ (4-1) hands a year ago in a rainy debacle that was more monsoon bowl than a football game.

“Yes, we really wanted this one,” said Houghton captain Gaborik Carlson, a senior. “We wanted revenge, and I think we got it.”

Equally excited was Stipech.

“I was proud,” he said. “The boys took came of business and finished the job.”

The Gremlins celebrate their victory over the Bulldogs with the Copper Bowl trophy Friday night. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

He added that he thought the key to victory was playing a physical brand of football on both sides of the ball. In particular, Stipech noted the play of Kyle Primeau and Carlson. In fact, both combined for four of the Gremlin’s six touchdown scores.

In the first quarter, with less than five minutes to go, Primeau bolted in past the goal line for Houghton’s first six points of the game. The quarter then ended with Carlson bringing in a 13-yard pass from Gremlins quarterback Camden Markham to make it 16-0 after 12 minutes.

“Kyle and Gaborik came to this one with a firmness on their faces as they were a part of that loss last year,” Stipech said. “They played so physical that it set the tone for the rest of the team.”

Primeau led the team in rushing with 21 carries and a total of 142 yards. Carlson had five receptions and led with 90 passing yards.

Neither team scored in the second, and so it was a two-score game at 16-0 as the teams split to their locker rooms.

For Bulldogs’ head coach Ramon Sague, the game was still in reach at the midway point. However, he was down one of his key players in the way of wide receiver and cornerback Dylan Dube.

“Dylan went down in the second quarter, and, in retrospect, that was definitely a turning point,” he said. “He is one of our faster players that helps with speed. So, once he went out, that really changed things for us particularly in our defensive mode. That really hurt us.”

The Gremlins would go on to score 12 in the third and 14 more in the fourth for the victory.

“I felt well enough to still be in it at half time,” Sague said. “In fact, I told the guys I was proud of the way they were playing. But in the second half, we couldn’t keep up with them. We missed tackles and didn’t play well. Houghton’s speed was a huge factor in the second half.”

The Gremlins will have a week off and have already earned a forfeit win this Friday due to the cancellation of the West Iron County’s football season. They then will take on Calumet and Negaunee on back-to-back weeks.

“It was so nice to see our guys put together a complete-game win in the Copper Bowl,” coach Stipech stated. “Now we have the toughest part of our schedule coming up with Calumet and Negaunee. We are a win away from the playoffs and are still in contention for the conference title. So, there are a lot of positives happening with our team.”