Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn overcame South O’Brien and its own miscues to win its Homecoming football game 44-26 October 4 at Hartley. HMS started well, let the Wolverines back in the contest and then put the game away at the end to improve to 3-3 on the season.
‘They came out with a good game plan and hit us in the mouth,” said HMS coach Jeremiah Delzer in reference to the Wolverines. “We’ve had this habit this year of every time that something gets hit in the mouth we kind of fade away from going 100 percent into our job and just playing loose and free and having fun. So that’s where the mistakes are happening and the games get closer. We’ve got to find a way to eliminate that and I think we did a much better job tonight than we have all year but we’ve still got to find a way to do that.”
The Hawks recovered three fumbles and intercepted a pair of passes. On the other side of the legder, HMS was intercepted twice and turned the ball over twice more on fumbles. In addition, the Hawks were unable to recover a squibb kickoff by South O’Brien and bobbled the snap in punt formation. The HMS defense was able to mitigate the damage by three times stopping the Wolverines on fourth down.
“I personally felt like we had good control over the whole game,” remarked Delzer. “We’ve just got to make a play every once in awhile. That’s all it was. Don’t turn the ball over and win our 50-50 balls. Their 50-50 balls went at certain times and we’ll get those 50-50 balls others times. Late in the game, they didn’t really get theirs.”
HMS is one of four teams with a winning record in Class A District 1. Gehlen Catholic leads with a 4-0 record, MMCRU is at 4-1, the Hawks at 3-1 and Sibley-Ocheyedan at 3-2. Alta-Aurelia has a 1-3 record while Akron-Westfield and South O’Brien are each 0-4.
Delzer, who kept reminding his team that the only thing you’re going to remember from your senior homecoming is whether you won or lost your football game felt the kids did a good job of buying into that. “(Friday) was a little bit of a chaotic school day,” said the coach. “I was a little worried, but I had the sense after warmups that this team’s ready to roll. We were ready to go.”

The Hawks turned an early South O’Brien fumble into a touchdown and scored again following a Wolverine punt. The lead was 16-0 after one quarter. After a couple of fumbles HMS got back on track with another score in the second quarter. South O’Brien reached the end zone three times in the quarter and trailed 24-18 at halftime.
The Hawks turned a third quarter interception into a touchdown to lead 32-18. The Wolverines then cashed in on a second long touchdown pass to draw within six at 32-26. Trouble was averted following the punt bobble when HMS recovered a South O’Brien fumble. The Hawks then drove nearly the length of the field to bump the lead to 38-26 early in the fourth. HMS turned a short field into its final score with 1:26 left in the game.
HMS gained 247 yards on the ground and 229 through the air as the team continues to expand its offensive repertoir. Jack Mastbergen rushed for 145 yards and a touchdown and tossed three scoring passes, one each to James Gellerman, Jackson Vogt and Jayden Leth. Gellerman’s 102 yards on the ground included a pair of touchdowns.
Particularly active on defense were Gellerman with eight tackles and Isaac Schierholz with seven.
Up Next:
After playing their last scheduled home game, the Hawks journey north to take on Sibley-Ocheyedan. The Generals lost a big battle on the road to Gehlen 34-26 on Friday night. Following the win over South O’Brien, Delzer talked a little about the upcoming opponent. “I know they are going to be a good, well-coached team that has a lot of balance,” he said. “From the little film that I’ve been able to get into they’re going to mix it up with a ton of looks. We’ll have to come up with a really good game plan to stop them like we do every single week.
Game time is 7:00 p.m. Friday, October 11 at Sibley.
S. O’Brien 0 18 8 0 – 26
HMS 16 8 8 12 – 44
First Quarter
6:35 HMS – James Gellerman 53 yard pass from Jack Mastbergen (Mastbergen 2-pt run) 8-0
1:10 HMS – Jackson Vogt 36 yard pass from Mastbergen (Gellerman 2-pt run) 16-0
Second Quarter
7:32 S. O’Brien – Jaden Kreber 5 yard run (2-pt pass failed) 16-6
3:21 HMS – Mastbergen 14 yard run (Gellerman 2-pt run) 24-6
2:36 S. O’Brien – Derek Paulsen 50 yard pass from Kreber (2-pt run failed) 24-12
1:56 S. O’Brien – Jordan Jenness 6 yard run (kick failed) 24-18
Third Quarter
9:38 HMS – Jayden Leth 53 yard pass from Mastbergen (Gellerman 2-pt run) 32-18
8:20 S. O’Brien – Paulsen 50 yard pass from Kreber (Paulsen 2-pt pass from Kreber) 32-26
Fourth Quarter
10:52 HMS – Gellerman 4 yard run (2-pt run failed) 38-26
1:26 HMS – Gellerman 2 yard run (2-pt pass failed) 44-26
Rushing: Mastbergen 26-145, 1 TD; Gellerman 28-102, 2 TD.
Passing: Mastbergen 15-21, 229 yards, 3 TD, 2 int.
Receiving: Vogt 4-69, 1 TD; Leth 3-69, 1 TD; Gellerman 5-65, 1 TD; Slayton McCarter 3-26.
Tackles: Gellerman 8, Isaac Schierholz 7, Hunter Daggett 5, Mastbergen, Blake Meendering, Damien Hanson 4, Leth, Vogt, Alex Billings 3, Dominic Tripp 2.
Fumble Recovery: Mastbergen.
Interception: Vogt.
Punt Returns: Gellerman 1-4.
Punts: Mastbergen 1-41.