Hawks prep for the playoffs with a 41-8 thumping of Akron-Westfield
Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn claimed its spot alone at the top of the final District standings by beating Akron-Westfield 41-8 October 14 at Hartley. An 8-0 Hawk lead after one quarter turned into a 29-0 halftime advantage. With the win, the Hawks improved to 6-2 on the season.
HMS finished with a 6-0 record in Class A District 1. Gehlen Catholic was 5-1 in District play, Hinton 4-2 and South O’Brien 3-3. All four are preparing for a Friday playoff game. Finishing 1-5 in the District were Alta-Aurelia, MMCRU and Akron-Westfield. The Hawks will host North Union in the first round of the playoffs, but more on that later.
“I’m extremely proud that we’re one in the district,” said HMS head coach Jay Eilers. “I think that puts us in a great position moving forward in the second season, and that’s going to be great for us.”
Akron-Westfield was forced to punt three times in the first half. The Westerners’ first possession ended in an interception by Trenton Vollink and their final possession of the first half ended as the clock expired, sending the teams to halftime. Meanwhile, Kooper Ebel scored three times on the ground and Trenton Vollink had a rushing touchdown of his own.
“I think we came out pretty well early,” noted Eilers. “I thought our kids executed. I thought we ran hard. Defensively, we pursued to the ball. I really appreciated our kickoff coverage – going into the wind and getting a stop at the 31 yard line. I thought we set a tempo.”
Ebel rushed for 257 yards to move past the 1700 yard mark for the season. He added five more touchdowns on the ground. Vollink contributed another 126 yards on the ground.
Defensively, Ebel led the way with 7.5 tackles from his safety position, including six solos. Keying the effort of the line was Lance Berends, who recorded 6.5 stops. “I thought our effort was very good,” said the HMS head man. “Our open field tackling is not where we expect it – it’s not where our kids expect it. I know they’re going to be prepared and be ready to go moving forward. I know that there’s going to be a lot of excitement having a playoff game at home next week. What a great opportunity for our kids, our school, our administration, our community. Emotions tonight for Senior Night. The goal was to win, and we did exactly that. Not by any means do I want to take the joy out of that victory tonight. Our kids did a good enough job to win, and win handily.”
Akron-Westfield scored its lone touchdown in the fourth quarter. On two other occasions in the final 24 minutes the Westerners moved to the HMS 16 and 30 yard lines but were turned away. Eilers sensed a second-half letdown. “We’ve asked so much from our kids from winter, to summer, to fall and we’ve got to make sure that we’re bringing the energy button,” said the coach. “I think the hard thing is, when you’re a young kid and your time is coming, to bring that energy on the sideline. We’re going to ask that moving forward. I know that. They’ll give it to us. They’ll do a good job. We’ve got to bring more energy. I felt like we were lacking energy tonight. Possibly we’re looking forward to the playoffs.”
Up next: Those playoffs begin for the Hawks Friday night with a visit from North Union. The Warriors, 5-3 on the season, are the fourth-place team in District 2, the home of defending champ West Hancock. North Union has rushed for 1447 yards this season, averaging 7.3 yards per carry. Senior quarterback Carter Morphew has thrown for 787 yards and eight touchdowns.
Eilers indicated that the process the team has followed will not change just because this is a playoff game. Said the coach, “We’re going to watch film of our opponent and break down their tendencies, their numbers and then we present that to our players so that they understand where we’re coming from. After that, we’re going to do a walk-through on Monday. We will condition on Monday and then we will come back Tuesday and be physical in practice and show them the best look we can show them with our scout team. I have been impressed with our scout team, so I definitely appreciate those kids giving us the best look they can week in and week out. We put those kids in there defensively (against Akron-Westfield) and those kids were flying around that last possession. So I was happy to see those kids fly around but concerned with as many kids as we have injured right now. The injury bug is very concerning to me. I do appreciate our kids being in the ice bucket and taking care of their bodies the way that we ask them. They’re injured, and they’re injured where they cannot play right now. To try to get off that injury bug is going to be big for us to move forward and accomplish the goals that we have moving forward.”
Kickoff will be at 7:00 p.m. Friday, October 21 at Hartley.
A-W 0 0 0 8 – 8
HMS 8 21 6 6 – 20
First Quarter
5:11 HMS – Kooper Ebel 6 yard run (Trenton Vollink 2 pt run) 8-0
Second Quarter
8:57 HMS – Ebel 1 yard run (2 pt run failed) 14-0
4:40 HMS – Vollink 11 yard run (Ebel 2 pt run) 22-0
:59 HMS – Ebel 56 yard run (Ebel kick) 29-0
Third Quarter
4:59 HMS – Ebel 84 yard run (kick failed) 35-0
Fourth Quarter
9:54 A-W – Jackson Marnach 13 yard pass from Laytin Koch (Ian Blowe 2 pt run) 35-8
7:30 HMS – Ebel 1 yard run (2 pt run failed) 41-8
Rushing: Ebel 19-257, 5 TD; Vollink 21-126, 1 TD; Aiden Espeland 2-6; Jack Mastbergen 2-0.
Passing: Ebel 3-5, 48 yards.
Receiving: Ethan Wiersma 1-35, Diehm 2-13.
Leading Tacklers: Ebel 7.5 (6 solos), Berends 6.5 (5), Keevyn Jacobsma 5.5 (4), Vollink 5 (4), Wiersma 5 (4), Spencer McCarter 4 (3), Adam Schierholz 4 (2), Elijah Groeneweg 3.5 (2), Diehm 3 (3).
Interceptions: Vollink 1.
Punt returns: Ebel 2-40.
Kickoffs: Ebel 5-311, Groeneweg 2-81.
Punts: Ebel 1-29.