So it just makes sense.

Lose a tough game to your league rival, and what do you do?

Go out and slap a “bear” around.

Not the kind that walks on four legs and has been known to eat hikers, but rather a football player who still attends high school and wears a bear logo on their shirt.

Back away from the real bear, take it out on the high school bear.

And so it was this past Friday when the Noxon High Red Devils sought to erase memories of a hard-fought loss to six-man football rival Hot Springs and the unfortunate subjects of retribution were the Gardner High Bruins.

The Red Devils rebounded well from their loss 38-26 loss to Hot Springs last weekend with a 42-7 thumping of visiting Gardner this past Friday.

The win boosted Noxon to 5-2 on the year and 4-1 in Western C, 6-player football.

Senior Johnny Knerr got the Red Devils rolling Friday when he bulled across the goal line from 10 yards out, giving the home team a 6-0 lead.

Neither team could get their offense un-cranked until the second quarter, when Noxon’s Gage Hendrick broke the stalemate with a short, eight-yard touchdown run that helped unleash a pent-up Noxon offense, and give the Devils a 13-0 lead.

Before the quarter was over, the Noxon passing game got in on the action as quarterback Brian Risch hooked up with wide out Ian Brown for a 20-yard aerial score. A successful two-point PAT then pushed Noxon to a 21-0 lead, which they held onto the rest of the first half.

The second half proved to be more of the same for the Bruins, who were shut down most of the game by the quick, swarming Noxon defense.

Hendrick, meanwhile, kept the wheels turning on for the Devils’ offense when he scored his second touchdown of the day, hauling in a 20-yarder from Risch, who then kicked the two-point PAT.

Then came a display of Noxon’s speed, as sophomore Ricky Williams took a Gardner punt and sprinted 50-yards past Gardner’s scattered defenders on his way to a punt return touchdown for the home team.

Williams’ return pushed the Noxon lead to 36-0 with one quarter left to play in the game as the Noxon defense repeatedly shut down any and all attempts by the Bruins to move the ball.

Before the offensive show wound down, Noxon added another six-yard touchdown on the ground as Tate Bosker plowed his way into the opposing end zone from five yards out, capping another Red Devils’ scoring driving.

Leading 42-0, Noxon finally surrendered a score with time running out in the game, but it was way too little, way too late as the Red Devils wrapped up the 42-6 win.

The Red Devils will get a chance to rest and reload this weekend thanks to a schedule bye. They return to action Friday, October 21 with a long road trip to Twin Bridges to close out regular season play.

They will then await post-season playoff pairings for the weekend of October 28.