IRON RIVER — The last two and a half seasons have been the toughest in the history of the West Iron County football program. With lack of numbers and some injuries, the Wykons had not finished a season since the 2020 campaign and had not won a game since a victory on the road at St. Ignace on Oct. 16 of that season. 

That all changed Friday night when the Wykons defeated L’Anse 22-0 at Nelson Field. Senior fullback Colton Holm ran for two touchdowns and junior quarterback Keenan Dobson-Donati ran for another to give West Iron its first win at the venerable stadium since Sept. 2020.  

Understandably, joy abounded after the final horn. 

“It’s special in its own way,” WIC coach Mike Berutti said. “The last two-plus years have been difficult, and it was nice to see the excitement on Nelson Field again.” 

“It feels great to be back on the winning side of things,” said Holm, who ran for a team-high 84 yards on 10 carries and scored the first two touchdowns of his varsity career. 

The Wykons (1-1) took a while to get settled after their 32-6 defeat at Gwinn in the opening week. They went four-and-out on the first series of the game, but then did embark on a 15-play, 65-yard drive that ended on the L’Anse 24-yard line on an incompletion on fourth down. 

On the ensuring series, junior linebacker Elijah Oberlin picked off a pass by L’Anse quarterback Cage Osterman at his own 40. On the next play, Dobson-Donati threw a beautifully lofted ball down the sidelines that was hauled in by junior running back Abel Lundin at the Purple Hornet 19. Six plays later, Holm scored on a pitch out to the right side and WIC broke the ice. 

“Colton Holm, not only did he run the ball well, he tackled well and he was a great lead blocker,” Berutti said.  

West Iron junior Bradly Jochem ran in for the 2-point conversion to give the Wykons an 8-0 lead with 5:34 to play in the first half. Jochem also played well in the game, running for 48 yards and catching four passes for 57 yards. He was also involved in numerous defensive plays from his secondary position. 

Meanwhile, the Wykons kept the Purple Hornets (0-2) in first gear throughout the opening half. L’Anse only mustered 49 yards in the first 24 minutes and never entered West Iron territory in the half. 

The Purple Hornets found some success on the first drive of the third quarter, taking the opening kickoff and marching to the WIC 27 before turning the ball over on downs. L’Anse repeated that effort after a Wykon punt, moving from its own 35 again to the West Iron 27 but failed on a four-down pass. 

For the night, the Purple Hornets gained 183 yards – 116 yards on the ground and 67 through the air. Junior Blake Harden led his team in rushing with 67 yards on 16 carries, while Osterman completed 7 of 18 passes. 

“We knew they were going run trips to one side and run that motion across,” Berutti explained. “They got us early on that fullback trap until we figured it out.” 

After their second stop of the half, the Wykons immediately turned the field around when Holm broke free on the right side for a 42-yard run down to the L’Anse 31. A defensive holding penalty on fourth down kept West Iron’s drive alive and it eventually ended on Holm’s 1-yard plunge with 7:49 left to play. 

Holm finished off the drive with a 2-point run and the Wykons increased their edge to 16-0. 

The Purple Hornets turned the ball back over the WIC after a dropped pass on fourth down from their 37-yard line with 5:05 left. The Wykons put the finishing touches on their triumph when Dobson-Donati ran in from the 2-yard line with 43 seconds left. 

In his first varsity start at quarterback, Dobson-Donati finished 6 of 13 for 103 yards passing and ran for an additional 16 yards. He did not turn the ball over. 

“Keenan’s a captain of our football team, he’s a guy that started at quarterback this week, he started at corner last week,” Berutti said. “In his career, he’s started at tight end, center and outside linebacker.  

“He’s a very intelligent young man and he threw some nice passes.” 

After the win, Holm and Berutti reflected on the team’s improvement from week one. 

“I felt like we played a lot harder,” Holm said. “Last week we had a tough game at Gwinn. But we knew that coming into this game we had to hit (L’Anse) a little harder than they were hitting us. So, we came in with a good mentality and we played hard.” 

“You could tell we weren’t really sure of ourselves early on,” Berutti said “I saw them gain confidence as the game went on. And that was nice to see. 

“Like I told them, what a difference eight days makes. And the kids were excited.”