By Journal Sports Staff

RUDYARD — Chad Trepczyk rushed for 265 yards and three touchdowns as Munising used a punishing run attack to upend Rudyard 30-26 in its premiere 8-player football game played Friday night.

But the Mustangs, who finished with 321 yards on the ground, didn’t clinch the victory on the scoreboard until about four minutes were left when Josiah Peramaki scored Munising’s fourth TD on a 2-yard run. His brother Micaiah Peramaki caught a two-point conversion pass from MHS quarterback Kane Nebel for the final points.

Even then, the “W” wasn’t in the bag as Rudyard mounted one final drive that was snuffed out when Nebel, now playing defense, snagged an interception about 10 yards in front of the end zone with a minute and a half left, according to Munising head coach Matt Mattson.

“More offensive things seemed similar in making the transition (from 11-player football),” Mattson said. “It’s still a matter of blocking and tackling, all the fundamentals.

“If you had seen this game, you would’ve thought it was a good football game and probably not noticed the number of players on the field.”

Of course, not many, if any, spectators are generally allowed at Michigan high school football games this fall because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Munising finished with 382 total yards as Nebel and Trepczyk combined to complete 6 of 8 passes for 61 yards and no interceptions. Ethan Lakosky accounted for a majority of the yards, making three catches for 49 yards.

Trepczyk’s rushing total came on 26 carries, meaning he averaged just over 10 yards per run.

Each team scored four TDs, each Mustang score answering one made by the host Bulldogs.

The difference was Munising converting three two-point conversions to just one for Rudyard.

Rudyard opened the scoring with an E.J. Suggitt pass to Cameron Peterson in the first quarter. Trepczyk answered with a 3-yard scoring run late in the period, and with Trepczyk adding the 2-point run, the Mustangs led 8-6.

Suggitt made two more TD throws to Peterson in the second quarter, with Trepczyk scoring from 2 yards out between them as the Bulldogs led 20-14 at halftime.

Munising didn’t have the answer for the late first-half Rudyard score until the third quarter, when Trepczyk ran in from 5 yards out and Nebel completed the 2-point pass to Micaiah Peramaki to thrust the Mustangs into a 22-20 advantage.

Rudyard scored for the final time with about eight minutes remaining on Suggitt’s scoring toss to Tate Besteman.

Because the PAT run failed, Rudyard clung to a tenuous 26-22 lead, setting up Josiah Peramaki for the winning TD about four minutes later.

Munising comes home this weekend for an unusual Saturday night game. The 7 p.m. Saturday game against Newberry will include a ceremony at the field marking the 40th anniversary of the 1980 state championship Mustangs football team, according to Mattson.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.