Westwood’s Taylor Dellangelo, left, runs with blocking help from teammate Travis Uren against Houghton on Thursday at the Patriots’ field in Ishpeming. (Journal photo by Corey Kelly)

ISHPEMING — Westwood had some question marks on offense going into this high school football season after losing all-conference backs Nathan Beckman and Ashton Bergman to graduation after last year.

Each gained more than 1,000 yards in seven regular-season games in 2018.

Who would step up to fill the holes created in the backfield? Enter Taylor Dellangelo and Chad Pohlman.

The senior duo scored two touchdowns apiece and combined for 432 yards in total offense to lead Westwood to a 24-12 season-opening win over Houghton at the Patriots’ field on Thursday night.

Westwood opened with the West PAC win behind the strong performances of Dellangelo and Pohlman, while the rest of head coach Scott Syrjala’s young team also stepped up against an improved Gremlins squad.

“I’ll be honest, I thought we actually came out pretty good,” Syrjala said. “We were feeling our way through, and for a lot of our kids, it was their first varsity game.

“So we can only get better from here, and we’re going to have to get better quick because we’ve got Iron Mountain next week.”

There were some flaws that Syrjala cited, including a touchdown called back and letting the Gremlins back into the game after a TD and onside kick recovery in the fourth quarter.

The called-back TD occurred late in the first half, a 48-yard pass from Dellangelo to Pohlman which was negated due to an unnecessary roughness penalty.

“If it was a personal foul for targeting, it should’ve been called on the extra point or kickoff because it was already in the end zone,” Syrjala said. “But people are going to make mistakes and that’s alright, let’s move onto the next play. I thought our kids did pretty well with that.”

Houghton’s fourth-quarter strike was a 57-yard TD run by Nathan Erva with 8:03 remaining to make it 24-12. Right after that, the Gremlins recovered the short kickoff to get some life.

“We did some really good things (tonight),” Syrjala said. “The lull in the fourth quarter with eight minutes to go, that can’t happen. We’ve got to learn to finish some games, but we’re young, and we’re still learning how to play the game at the varsity level.”

Four plays after Houghton’s kick recovery, Patriots sophomore Travis Uren picked off Gremlins junior quarterback Tedd Halonen to kill any momentum, and Westwood worked down the clock from there.

Uren was one of many youngsters Syrjala was impressed with.

“He’s a football player,” he said. “He loves football and I mean that. He lives and breathes football, he’s fast and strong. He’s only a sophomore but he’s one of our hardest workers. He had a really good game.

“I was really happy with a lot of different things (tonight) with a lot of our kids. We had some kids who had to step up in different places. I’m proud of our kids.”

Houghton head coach Kurt Huffmaster sees room for his own team’s improvement.

“They’re a good football team, but I think we’re better than we showed,” he said. “I give (Westwood) a lot of credit, they’ve got a good system and they executed it well.”

Asked what the message to his team was going into Week No. 2, Huffmaster said it’s about getting back to basics.

“We make our biggest gains between games one and two,” he said. “We’ve just got to get better this week. If we improve on the basics, we’ll be all right.”

The Patriots received to begin the game, and scored on their opening drive, a lengthy one that lasted a little over 8 1/2 minutes. That touchdown went to Pohlman, who received a 30-yard pass from Dellangelo to go up 6-0 with 3:21 left in the first. The two-point conversion attempt by senior Erik Anderson was no good, and he was a trendsetter for the rest of the night, as neither team was successful in their remaining conversion attempts.

On the second play of the second quarter, Dellangelo handed off to Pohlman this time, who found the end zone on a 5-yard jet sweep to make it 12-0.

Houghton found the scoreboard with 4:02 remaining in the first half, with an assist coming from Pohlman on defense.

Tedd Halonen looked for senior receiver Ty Halonen for a pass downfield. On the pass attempt, the ball was deflected by Pohlman and wound up in the hands of Ty Halonen, who was standing in the end zone. The pass was good for a 20-yard TD, putting the Gremlins within striking distance, 12-6, at halftime.

Dellangelo tallied the next two scores, a 54-yard run in the third and 10-yard run in the fourth, to make it 24-6 with 9:19 remaining.

Westwood recovered a short kick on the ensuing kickoff, but fumbled the ball to the Gremlins soon after.

That’s when Houghton got its 57-yard TD from Erva to pull within two possessions, but the pick by Uren all but sealed the win for Westwood.

Dellangelo finished 4 for 5 through the air for 122 yards and an interception. Tedd Halonen was 3 for 5 passing for 30 yards also with one interception.

Westwood finished with 281 yards rushing, with Dellangelo leading that category with 20 carries for 144 yards. Pohlman finished with 61 yards on the ground and 105 receiving yards.

The Gremlins compiled 168 yards of rushing with Erva leading the way on four carries for 67 yards.

Westwood had 18 first downs to Houghton’s six.

Next Friday, The Patriots visit Iron Mountain (1-0), while Houghton hosts L’Anse (0-1).

Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.