Hawks stun Pioneers with bruising ground attack

Special to the Daily Reporter

In a battle of speed versus physicality, Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn used a bruising ground attack to control the ball and the line of scrimmage in a 41-13 non-district victory over Okoboji Friday at Petersen Field in Hartley.

The Hawks, who were anchored by 270-pound offensive lineman Eric Lyman and 225-pound tailback Josh Treybal, manhandled the Pioneers in the trenches on both sides of the ball. H-M-S had three 100-yard ball carriers and rushed for 475 yards while Okoboji was limited to 42 yards on 16 carries.

"I really felt that we came out flat and were not ready to play football tonight," said Okoboji head coach Travis Schipper. "And that's kind of on me, that's my job to make sure that these kids are ready to play and we were not."

The highlight of the game for Okoboji was Ryan Wurtz' arm. The third-year starting quarterback was 14-of-25 passing for 126 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He threw strikes all over the field for the Pioneers, hitting Blake Kliegl with a 14-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter that capped off a 5-play, 65-yard drive.

"Hartley played a very good game tonight. They took us out of our game plan and put us on our heels on defense," Schipper said. "But it seemed like whenever we got the momentum, we had a mistake, we had a penalty or a sack or a blown assignment that put us in third-and-long situations. Stuff like that really limits our offense. I think we can run and pass equally when we have manageable third down situations, but we weren't able to do that tonight."

The Hawks took charge from the opening drive, rumbling 65 yards on eight running plays. John Benz capped off the scoring drive with a 2-yard run, and scampered into the end zone for a two-point conversion run with 8:51 left in the first quarter.

After forcing a three-and-out, the Hawks marched straight in for another score.

Trailing 16-0, Max Burgeson took a reverse from Kevin James and sprinted 82 yards to pay dirt on the ensuigin kick, cutting the deficit to 16-7.

The Hawks answered with a 4-play, 66-yard scoring drive. Treybal rushed in his second touchdown of the contest for the Hawks, scoring from five yards out.

Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn then opened up the second stanza with another touchdown drive. A 31-yard scamper by Benz that broke three tackles set up a four-yard scoring run by Logan Sweeney. Blake Kliegl intercepted the two-point conversion attempt to keep the score at 28-7.

The Pioneers answered as Kliegl hauled in three receptions, including a touchdown, on the following drive to cut the gap down to 28-13 with 8:11 remaining in the half.

The Hawks' defense held the Pioneers to just 24 total yard in the second half, but weren't able to finish the game off until scoring on two of their final three possessions.

Logan Sweeney plunged in from seven yards out to complete a 12-play, 92-yard drive that ate up five minutes and saw H-M-S pick up six first downs on the ground. Benz then found a hole and sprinted 42 yards for a score with 4:22 left in the game.

Okoboji tallied 162 total yards. Max Burgeson was held to 35 yards on seven carries. Kliegl caught five receptions for 34 yards and a score. J.B. Ellis also had three catches for 49 yards and Burgeson hauled in three passes for 28 yards.

"We told the kids tonight that we're not happy with the results, but it's a non-district game. We have to refocus and regroup against a completely different type of offense that we're expecting from Cherokee," Schipper said.