Hawks secure a share of the District title with a win at Hinton
Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn remained unbeaten in District play with a 55-20 victory over Hinton October 7 at Hinton. The Hawks improved to 5-0 in Class A District 1. Hinton fell to 3-2. Gehlen Catholic is one game behind the Hawks. Both HMS and the Jays have one District game remaining. The Hawks own the tie breaker having defeated Gehlen earlier in the season.
HMS gained 436 yards on the ground, while holding the Blackhawks to 84 rushing yards. Take out an 82-yard touchdown run and Hinton rushed for four yards on 22 carries. “Man, we were good against the run,” exclaimed Hawk head coach Jay Eilers. “We are physical. I thought they were going to be, maybe, more of an option team than they were tonight. They have it within their tool box and it makes me nervous. I thought we played it very well at times. I think to play it well, you’ve got to take care of the dive first, and our kids did a very good job of tackling the dive. That put us in good position defensively.”
The aforementioned long TD run actually gave the Blackhawks a second quarter lead of 7-6. HMS responded immediately as Ethan Diehm ran the kickoff back 82 yards for a touchdown that put his team ahead to stay. “Huge moment,” stated Eilers. “Our kickoff return group really came in hard to the middle so that we could get leverage on blocks. And Ethan was very faithful. He trusted and just said, ‘I’m going to run my tail off.’ Man, it’s fun watching that kid run. He’s a very good athlete and we’re blessed to have him.”
Special teams came up big again when, later in the quarter, James Gellerman rushed in from the left and blocked the punt. He then gathered in the ball and ran 15 yards for the score. “We felt like on film we could get a punt block,” noted Eilers. “We have assignments. The hard thing is that sometimes your assignment’s not to go block it, but when you do your job it allows those guys to go block it with relentless effort. I was proud of James to get that block for us. Just did a nice job there. I was proud of everybody else to say, ‘Hey, I’m willing to do my job so these guys can go do that.’
That scoop and score put the Hawks in front 30-7. There were a total of 36 points scored in the second quarter, which ended with HMS in charge 42-20.
Travis Kamradt exited the game in the first quarter due to an injury and did not return. Taking up some of the slack in the offensive backfield was Trenton Vollink. The senior rushed for 131 yards and a pair of touchdowns, one covering 75 yards. “Trenton kind of lost a year last year so he’s been very hungry for this year and has just done a great job,” said his coach. “I was excited to see him carry the ball, excited to see him do those things and happy for him.”
Kooper Ebel finished with 283 rushing yards and four touchdowns. He also passed for another 80 yards. For good measure Ebel made seven tackles and intercepted two passes. Ryan Borden had two receptions for 55 yards and had a takeaway of his own, recovering a fumble. All three of the turnovers led to touchdowns. Lance Berends also made his presence felt with 7.5 tackles and a sack.
Up next: The regular season comes to a close for the Hawks with a home game versus Akron-Westfield. HMS has a chance to win the District outright against the Westerners who are 1-6 on the season with the win coming over MMCRU. Last week Akron-Westfield suffered a narrow 13-12 home loss to South O’Brien. Eilers knows Akron-Westfield has a penchant for doing a lot of things offensively. Said the coach, “They’re going to throw the kitchen sink at us: from trick plays, to options, to throwing the ball, to screens. Just watching them from playing Hinton, I thought that was a very good football game and they were in positions to make it closer than what it was, being 22-7. I know they’re going to throw a lot at us. I do like our physicality match-up versus their d-line, but they’re a 3-3 stack and they’re going to be blitzing all over the place. We’re going to have to be prepared for that.”
Kickoff for Senior Night will be at 7:00 p.m. Friday, October 14 at Hartley.
HMS 6 36 13 0 – 55
Hinton 0 20 0 0 – 20
First Quarter
9:10 HMS – Kooper Ebel 34 yard run (kick failed) 6-0
Second Quarter
10:42 Hinton – Beau DeRocher 54 yard run (Reese Stokes kick) 6-7
10:31 HMS – Ethan Diehm 82 yard kickoff return (Ebel 2 pt run) 14-7
6:55 HMS – Ebel 20 yard run (Ebel 2 pt run) 22-7
6:31 HMS – James Gellerman 15 yard return of blocked punt (Travis Kamradt 2 pt run) 30-7
4:56 Hinton – Daniel Blackwell 63 yard pass from Glen Carlson (Stokes kick) 30-14
4:38 HMS – Ebel 71 yard run (2 pt run failed) 36-14
2:08 HMS – Trenton Vollink 75 yard run (2 pt run failed) 42-14
0:17 Hinton – Caden Winters 24 yard pass from Carlson (kick failed) 42-20
Third Quarter
6:43 HMS – Vollink 14 yard run (2 pt pass failed) 48-20
5:53 HMS – Ebel 33 yard run (Ebel kick) 55-20
Rushing: Ebel 22-283, 4 TD; Vollink 12-131, 2 TD; Travis Kamradt 5-16; Aiden Espeland 1-13.
Passing: Ebel 5-9, 80 yards.
Receiving: Ryan Borden 2-55, Diehm 1-15, Gellerman 1-12, Vollink 1-(-2).
Leading Tacklers: Lance Berends 7.5 (6 solos, 1 sack); Ebel 7 (5); Vollink 6 (4); Elijah Groeneweg 4.5 (3); Ethan Wiersma 4 (3); Spencer McCarter 3 (2).
Fumble Recovery: Borden 1.
Interceptions: Ebel 2.
Kickoff returns: Diehm 1-82, Ebel 1-9, Gellerman 1-0.
Kickoffs: Ebel 8-360.