Westwood’s Taylor Dellangelo in action against L’Anse Friday night Oct. 11, 2019 at Westwood High School. (Journal photo by Amy Grigas)

By RYAN SPITZA

Journal Sports Writer

ISHPEMING — Some might call it football weather, but conditions weren’t the most ideal around the Upper Peninsula on Friday night.

With hail coming down at kickoff, along with piercing winds and blistering 40-degree temperatures, the winner of Friday’s contest between L’Anse and Westwood was going to be the team that stood tall against those conditions.

The Patriots prevailed, winning 30-6 to improve their record to 5-2. The Purple Hornets dropped to 4-3.

Westwood was led on offense by seniors Chad Pohlman and Taylor Dellangelo. Pohlman had two touchdowns on the night, and ran for 120 yards on seven carries. Dellangelo led the Patriots on the ground with 134 yards on 20 carries, also adding a TD.

Despite the lopsided win, Patriots head coach Scott Syrjala didn’t sound satisfied with his team, which pulled out to a 16-0 lead after one quarter.

“I’m pretty disappointed, to be honest,” he said. “We can’t come out, play a good first quarter, get up 16-0 and then stop doing the things we’re coached to do.

“It’s 4th-and-13, we give up a touchdown. We get down to the 1-inch line, we fumble the football. Those things can’t happen. If we’re going to try to be a playoff team and compete in the playoffs, those are the things that have to show up.

“We’ve struggled this year with doing the little things and doing the things we’re forced to do. That’s frustrating as a coach. Our coaching staff is frustrated, I’m frustrated, and we’ve got to shore some things up. We’re going to do that starting Sunday.

“Listen, we’ve got a great group of kids. But for whatever reason, we bend when we get up and there’s been a couple of times this year that it’s happened. Not when we’re down, though. When we’re down, we keep playing hard, we still stay focused, but for whatever reason when we get up, we lose our focus and I’m not sure why that is.

“L’Anse is a really dangerous team. They’ve got some good receivers, a good running back and a quarterback who can throw. They can hit you just like that and all of a sudden it’s a ball game. That can’t happen.”

Syrjala added that the first 12 minutes were the best for his team, while also crediting the offensive line and a few other players who contributed.

“I was happy with our first quarter and I was happy with how our offensive line played,” he said. “I thought Chad Pohlman had a pretty good game, and I’ll be honest, I was happy with some of our guys who went in on the line. They came in and we still moved the ball.

“(Junior) Stephen Kangas came in, he ran really hard and hit the hole really hard. Travis Uren is a sophomore linebacker for us, but he plays fullback too, he came in and had some great blocks.

“But we’ve got to shore some things up. We’ve got to stay disciplined if we’re going to compete in the playoffs.”

Westwood scored on its first possession after a Purple Hornets’ three-and-out. The score came on Dellangelo’s only TD of the night, a 13-yard run. The conversion was good to make it 8-0 Patriots with 7:03 left in the first.

After L’Anse was stopped short on a 4th-and-2 at the 50, Pohlman ran his first score of the night for 52 yards to make it 16-0 with 4:35 left in the first.

Pohlman scored his second of the night with 6:40 left in the first half on a 5-yard rush. The conversion failed this time, making it a 22-0 game.

The Purple Hornets finally got into the end zone with 3:36 remaining in the half when junior quarterback Alex Kissel connected with senior wide receiver Tanner Lane on a 4th-and-9 play in the red zone. That was the final score of the half, making it a 22-6 Patriots lead at the break.

Westwood was to receive the opening kickoff of the second half, but a short kick was recovered by L’Anse.

The Purple Hornets couldn’t capitalize, however, and senior Erik Anderson added the final TD of the night for Westwood on a 10-yard run to make it 30-6 with 8:08 remaining in the third.

Dellangelo finished 1 of 3 through the air for 31 yards, with that reception going to Pohlman. The Patriots totaled 353 yards of total offense to L’Anse’s 168, with 107 of those yards coming from Kissel’s air attack, as he went 8 of 21.

The Purple Hornets were led on the ground by senior Jonah Dowd, who rushed 36 yards on 15 attempts.

Westwood visits Gogebic (0-7) on Friday while L’Anse hosts Iron Mountain (7-0).

Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.