IRON MOUNTAIN — On the third play from scrimmage against visiting L’Anse Friday night, Iron Mountain senior linebacker/running back Alex Jayne returned an interception 11 yards for a touchdown. Untouched.

On the fourth play from scrimmage of the ensuing drive, Jayne returned a punt 56 yards down to the Purple Hornets’ 1-yard line. Untouched.

He scored his second touchdown on the next play.

About four minutes later after L’Anse punted again, Jayne took a handoff from quarterback Ian Marttila and ran 56 yards around the right side for his third score. Again untouched.

And with that, the UPSSA fifth-ranked Mountaineers were off and running and blew past the Purple Hornets 63-8 in a WestPAC Iron Division game on a gorgeous Homecoming evening at Mountaineer Stadium.

With the victory, Iron Mountain clinched at least a share of the conference crown with their fourth straight win in the league. Overall, the Mountaineers are 5-0.

“We were able to get the job done,” IM coach Robin Marttila said matter-of-factly. “L’Anse was a shorthanded team here tonight and we understood that.

“We came out and made plays early and it was one of those games where it got away from them early.”

So much so that both Marttila and Purple Hornets coach Eric DeMink decided to institute a running clock after the first quarter ended.

“You can always do that if both coaches agree,” Marttila explained. “The way it was going, it was just the right thing to do.”

After Jayne’s scores, running back Aiden Ellis ran in from 52 yards out with 1:10 remaining in the opening period as the Mountaineers carried a 28-0 lead into the second.

At around the 7:30 mark of the second, Ian Marttila snuck in from the 1-yard line for IM’s fifth touchdown, and then about five minutes later, Martilla hit tight end Oskar Kangas deep in the left corner of the endzone for a 13-yard strike.

Senior Bryce Davis knocked in the extra point to make the score 42-0 at the break. Davis finished 9 for 9 on PATs in the contest.

Davis also threw the key block on Jayne’s 56-yard scamper in the first quarter.

“He made a nice pull and (there was) a wide-open hole,” Jayne said. “Just cut it in and took it for a touchdown.”

Jayne added a 6-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter for his fourth TD of the night. The 6-foot, 190-pounder finished with 91 yards rushing on just 4 carries.

With his strength and speed, Jayne is a threat to score on any play.

“He runs hard and he’s put a lot of time in,” Coach Marttila said. “And I’m happy for him because he cares and he bleeds football. You love to see kids like that succeed.

“We’re just going to keep giving him the ball and keep going.”

Junior reserve running back Di’ Angelo Saldana burst around the right end for a 29-yard score with just under 4 minutes left in the game to push the score to 56-0.

Sophomore Brayden Kassin then picked off a pass and returned it 26 yards for IM’s final TD of the night.

L’Anse (0-5) got on the board when Kolyn Sweeney took off on a 53-yard scoring burst. Daniel Conner ran in for the 2-point conversion to account for the final tally.

Defensively, other that the interceptions by Jayne and Kassin, Iron Mountain was led by Alec Haferkorn (five solo tackles, four assisted tackles), Daniel Manier (1.5 sacks) and Kangas (0.5 sack).

Offensively, Ellis added 91 yards on three carries, Kassin finished with 54 yards on two carries and Saldana wound up with 25 yards on three carries.

Ian Marttila connected on all three of his passes for 63 yards.

Afterwards, both Jayne and his head coach said the week of preparation for the winless Purple Hornets was basically no different than any other week.

“I mean, we look at every team the same,” Jayne said. “We watch film, we draw up what we need to do. Obviously, when we have a better team come around there is a little more that goes into the week, but overall, not much changes during the week.”

“We’re creatures of habit,” Coach Marttila added. “We do the same thing whether it’s Homecoming Week or another week. We try to focus on things we can control and be very detail oriented.

“It’s a week-to-week season. We’re going to go on to next week. All we can do next week is win one game and prepare for one team and we’ve sort of always done that.”