CLOQUET — When Mountain Iron-Buhl moved from IX-player football to a traditional 11-player format in 2025, the Rangers were keenly aware of the doubt surrounding them.
People throughout the state largely believed that the move could be the end of Mountain Iron-Buhl’s run of success, which included a IX-player state championship in 2022.
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In their first season as an 11-player program in decades, the Rangers made it to the Section 7A championship game and came up short against Barnum. On Friday, Mountain Iron-Buhl defeated Barnum 36-16 and claimed the 7A title.
“We got zero respect,” MI-B coach Dan Zubich said. “(People would say), ‘Now you’re playing real football. Good luck.’ Went to the section final the first year and they said, ‘You lost.’ Now we won, so now all the trolls can go back under the bridge.”
Barnum jumped out to a 16-0 lead in the opening quarter, but Mountain Iron-Buhl responded in spades. Zubich’s program scored 36 unanswered points and controlled every aspect of the contest in the second, third and fourth frames.
No player was more responsible for those dominant three stanzas than MI-B senior quarterback Izaiah Alto. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound wrecking b...