Calumet's Oskar Loukus (12) heads for the end zone as Westwood's Gavin Comero (50) tries to bring him down during a game Friday at Agassiz Field in Calumet. (Eddie O’Neill/For the Gazette)

CALUMET — In the first two weeks of football, the Calumet Copper Kings have outscored their opponents, 96-6. They opened the season with a 41-0 victory over West Iron County, and then on Friday, they downed the Westwood Patriots, 55-6.

Interestingly, it was the Patriots who got on the scoreboard first at Agassiz Field, but that is all they got. They led 6-0 after one quarter of play.

The Copper Kings countered with a touchdown and an extra point at the 7:43 mark of the second. Oscar Loukus returned a punt from Westwood for 30 yards and six points. They now led 7-6.

Then came two fumble returns for touchdowns by Calumet’s Ben Anderson within a 75-second time frame. That put the score at 21-6.

Anderson added another after an interception with less than a minute to go in the half.

The two teams went to their locker rooms with Calumet full steam ahead at 28-6.

“Ben Anderson gets the game ball,” said Copper Kings coach Josh Frantti. “He ran his heart out tonight, and he finished strong on many of his runs.

“As a team, we ran the ball well. Our guys up front did well to adjust to their pressure and found the gaps.”

In the third quarter, Anderson made the score 35-6 with a 50-yard touchdown run. Then with around five minutes to go Tyler Halonen pushed this game into running-clock mode with a 17-yard scamper.

Westwood coach Tyler Thomas gave credit to the Copper Kings.

“Calumet is a tough team,” he said. “They came out with good intensity, and we couldn’t match it. We had a lot of missed tackles and not a lot of protection on the offensive line. We had a great first drive on both offense and defense, but things went downhill from there.”

With the lopsided score, Frantti was able to get a lot of his second-string players in during the fourth quarter.

“They played very well,” he said. “I was impressed.”

So well that the Copper Kings added two more touchdowns as the final twelve minutes. In the end, the Calumet squad scored eight touchdowns, and Ben Anderson was 7-8 in extra-point attempts in the 55-6 win.

“Enjoy this one, boys,” said a proud Frantti. “Because we have Negaunee next week.”

Up next

The Copper Kings will travel to Negaunee to face the Miners on Friday, Sept. 12. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.