The final score didn’t tell the whole story Saturday at Mt. Iron.
While Mesabi rolled to a 58-0 community college football victory over visiting Vermilion, the Ironhawks showed some progress after a similar shellacking the opening week against Rochester.
For a half, Vermilion was competitive with the host Norse.
Mesabi led 16-0 at halftime and needed a second- quarter goal-line stand to keep Vermilion (0-2) off the board.
The Ironhawks weren’t able to sustain that in the second half, however, as Mesabi took advantage of turnovers and field position to rack up 21 points within the first eight minutes of the second half.
Mesabi, which collected 28 first downs and amassed 466 yards of total offense, cruised from there.
It was quite a day for Mesabi’s Osten Jones, who ran for 182 yards, including an 83-yard touchdown gallop in the second quarter.
Jones reached the end zone twice and did plenty of damage with his foot as well, nailing five extra points and connecting on a 33-yard field goal that gave Mesabi a 16-0 edge late in the first half.
Vermilion, which had negative yards of offense in a season-opening shutout loss at Rochester, picked up 15 first downs against Mesabi but never found the end zone.
The Ironhawks’ best chance came in the second quarter when it got to the Mesabi five, but the drive stalled and the Norse took over on downs.
Running back Logan Glancy had a 25-yard gain for Vermilion and finished with a team-best 58 yards for the Ironhawks.
Quarterback Anthony Purifoy had seven completions for 60 yards while Jonathan Cribbs also saw time at quarterback and completed five passes for 47 yards.
Malik Matthews had three receptions for 38 yards for Vermilion and teammate Shamon Thomas added three catches for 28 yards. Teammate David Prather added a 21-yard reception.
Vermilion was not able to sustain a scoring drive, however, and the Ironhawks had three turnovers.
The Vermilion defense had two interceptions, with Addler Jenkins and Matthew Battle both picking off passes for the Ironhawks.
Gerome Steward led the Vermilion defense with nine tackles, including two solo stops.
Next up were Battle, Santiago Salgado and James Mitzner with eight each. Shawnquez Simmons finished with seven tackles.
Vermilion’s Semaj Flowers had a quarterback sack and Carlos Brown and Korvah Harper shared a sack.
Mesabi’s Anthony Andrews had three sacks and eight tackles in all for the day.
The Norse quarterback, Zeyshawn Martin, had eight completions, including a pair for touchdowns.
Vermilion is on its bye week and returns to the field Saturday, Sept. 27, for its Parents Weekend home opener against M State-Fergus Falls.
