CAMERON — Following two winless seasons, the Barron Golden Bears wasted no time in getting their first victory this year, taking down the rival Cameron Comets 27-16 in a nonconference football game on Friday in Cameron.
With the win Barron ends its 19-game losing streak. Its last victory previously was over Cameron in the second-to-last week of the 2021 season.
“I just can’t be more proud of these guys,” Barron coach Nick Schroeder said. “They busted their butts all offseason, bought into our process and it was an everyday grind for them. I can’t say enough about this group, they really earned this.”
The Golden Bears had a kickoff return for a touchdown and forced two second-half turnovers, including Shawn Holten’s 49-yard interception return for a touchdown that put Barron in front 20-8 with nine minutes, and 35 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Holten also ran for 23 yards and a touchdown, while catching two passes for 19 yards. David Pond had an 83-yard kickoff return for a score to start the game and led the Golden Bears with 60 rushing yards on seven attempts. Quarterback Troy McDonough threw for 80 yards and a touchdown on 5 of 11 passing.
Cameron got 92 yards rushing on 16 attempts from Cole Peterson, while Aiden Golat ran for 35 and a touchdown on two carries. In his first start, quarterback AJ Guerra was 10 of 24 for 98 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Jax Manor hauled in seven passes for 101 yards and a score.
“Barron’s a good football team,” Cameron coach Charlie Roherty said. “I know on paper they’re going from 0-9 into the season, but I talked to coach Schroeder and they understood they went through another season since last season — the offseason, the biggest season. They have a team that’s committed to the process, where we have guys — we didn’t fall short — but riding off the coattails of last year.
“Every year you’ve got to get better. I actually think we played a great football game, a lot of mistakes, but we had a lot of guys in new spots, and it didn’t work out in our favor in the end, but that was a dog fight.”
Both teams scored on their first time with the ball to begin the season. After Pond raced 83 yards on the opening kickoff to go up 7-0, Cameron responded with a scoring drive. Golat got to the edge and sprinted his way for a 24-yard score with Guerra finding Michael Gronski on the two-point conversion. That put the Comets up 8-7 with still 10:44 to go in the opening quarter.
After the fast start both teams were unable to find the end zone again until the second half. A pair of long pass plays moved the Golden Bears down the field on their first possession of the second half. McDonough connected with Devon Kerkhoff for a gain of 36 into Cameron territory, and then he lofted the ball toward the end zone as Glendon Thompson pulled it down in traffic on a 28-yard touchdown. Garrett Sadtler added the extra point and Barron was in front 14-8 with five minutes left in the third quarter.
Holten’s interception put the Golden Bears in front by 12, but Cameron responded to narrow the margin. Cameron moved the ball 58 yards on seven plays with Manor on the receiving end of a 25-yard pass from Guerra. The Comet quarterback then added a two-point conversion pass to Brady Gronski and the Comets were within 20-16 with 6:31 to play.
Looking to put the game away Barron got a big gain of 26 by Pond to reach the red zone but the drive stalled. Facing fourth-and-13 at the 17-yard line, the Golden Bears had a gain of 11 on a pass play as they turned the ball back over to the Comets. The Golden Bear defense stepped up with two straight rushing attempts for no yards and then two incompletions through the air.
Barron had back possession after the turnover on downs at the Cameron 6-yard line with 1:41 remaining. Two plays later Holten ran in from 3 yards to seal the victory. The Comets had one last possession facing a two-score deficit, and backup quarterback Jayton Silvernail got Cameron down to the 5-yard line on a pass to Manor. Cameron was whistled for a 5-yard penalty and on the last play of the game with less than a second to go the Golden Bears stopped Manor 1 yard from scoring.
Despite Barron and Cameron playing separate conferences beginning this season with the Comets joining the Lakeland after statewide realignment, the two schools made it a point to play each other in a nonconference game. It was the first game of the year and both teams had their fair share of miscues as both were penalized 75 yards, Cameron on 14 flags and Barron on 10, but the Golden Bears forced the only two turnovers of the game and got a special teams score to propel themselves to the win.
“We’ve got a lot of clean up still,” Schroeder said. “We have high expectations, a standard for them, to not shoot ourselves in the foot, but we capitalized on their mistakes more than they capitalized on our mistakes, and that’s one of the big reasons why we won today.”
Barron has its home opener against Turtle Lake on Friday, while Cameron also returns to the field Friday at Boyceville.
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