Small mistakes hurt the Hawks on potential scoring drives

KINGDOM PREP LUTHERAN 12, RIB LAKE-PRENTICE 0

A couple of early drives into enemy territory fizzled, and two big plays set up two short touchdowns that accounted for all of the scoring in Kingdom Prep Lutheran’s 12-0 win over the host Rib Lake-Prentice Hawks in Friday’s non-conference football season opener in Rib Lake.

As the score indicates, the game was dictated by the defenses, both of whom did well in slowing down the opponents’ running games. The Wolfpack made a couple of things happen through the air that put them over the top.

The Hawks felt they had a few too many two steps forward and two steps back types of moments that hurt their chances to take an early lead and potentially change the course of the game.

“Overall, the guys played hard and they gave a great effort on both sides of the ball,” Hawks’ co-head coach Jonah Campbell said. “Defensively we did pretty well, did our jobs pretty well. There was just a lot of rust, I would say, that we need to knock off going into this week.”

Penalties played a role in a handful of drives. The Hawks were flagged eight times costing them 50 yards. Kingdom Prep Lutheran had similar issues with seven penalties for 55 yards. Offensive line play was an area coming into the season the Hawks knew might take some time to click and they were presented with an early test against a huge defensive front and some aggressive play from the Wolfpack’s linebackers.

“Just small errors or misses up front,” Campbell said. “One of the things was the consistency in running the same play. There was a play we ran the most times, and it was rarely blocked the same way twice, which led to having a 15-yard gain to start the game with it and then running it a few plays later and getting tackled for a loss. They were more aggressive than who played in the scrimmage as far as how often they blitzed. We just haven’t had the experience picking that up on certain plays.”

After forcing a three-and-out to start the game, the Hawks seemed to be on their way to an opening score. Sam Gumz ran for 15 on the first play of a drive that started at Kingdom Prep Lutheran’s 40 after his nice punt return. The Hawks overcame a penalty when Jackson Blomberg made a sliding catch for 15 yards on a pass from Michael Borchardt as he scrambled to his left on fourth and 15. But a holding call was followed by an interception by the Wolfpack’s John Davis, killing the drive at the 17-yard line.

Kingdom Prep Lutheran quarterback Maleek Granberry scrambled for 35 yards to reverse field position on the ensuing drive, but he also threw three straight incompletions as the drive stalled at the Hawks’ 35. A 22-yard pass from Borchardt to Michael Quednow again put the Hawks in Wolfpack territory, but a penalty turned second and four into second and nine and the Hawks didn’t recover, with a fourth-down interception Josiah Robinson ending that drive at the 26.

The Wolfpack got the game’s first big break when a bad snap forced Rib Lake-Prentice punter Damien Peterson to make a run for it on fourth and 16 and he didn’t come close to getting the necessary yardage while getting stopped at his own 30.

Davis then made a tough catch on the sideline at the 4-yard line, snagging a ball that was actually tipped by Borchardt. Jaden Johnson scored on the next play to give the Wolfpack a 6-0 lead with 1:16 left in the half.

“They got lucky where, I think it was three times I saw a ball they threw get tipped,” Campbell said. “There were two over the middle and there was another crosser and they ended up catching it. The big play was the one before their first touchdown when Michael tipped it and just couldn’t knock it down. It tipped up and the guy caught it. He got a big gain and put them in scoring position.

“Other than that play and the scramble, we had a pretty solid game defensively.”

Playing without the injured Gumz and Blomberg, the offense got little going after halftime. One possession late in the third quarter did result in two first downs, but a penalty and a sack where Borchardt had a wide-open receiver but just didn’t have time to get it there killed the drive 42 yards away from the goal line. On the second play of the fourth quarter, Granberry hit Mally Lee for a big 35-yard gain to the six. Two plays later, Johnson scored from 5 yards out with 10:41 to go.

Gumz led Rib Lake-Prentice with 51 yards on 10 attempts despite playing less than two quarters. Jordan Yanko had 37 yards on 14 attempts, while Borchardt scrambled for 11 yards on seven carries as the pass protection broke down late.

“Their linemen were big, but after watching film I think it was more their linebackers that hurt us,” Campbell said. “They were fast and they blitzed and obviously we hadn’t put in enough work picking up blitzers. I think we held our own with their bigger guys. I think maybe we were more athletic on the line than they were. But their second-level guys were fast. When they wanted to blitz they kind of wreaked havoc.”

Kingdom Prep Lutheran rushed for just 124 yards with only three carries that gained double-digit yardage. Granberry was eight of 20 for 120 yards. Peterson led Rib Lake-Prentice’s defense with 5.5 tackles. Borchardt had four.

Rib Lake-Prentice is back in action Friday in Prentice, hosting Northland Pines in a 7 p.m. kickoff. The Eagles were blasted on their home field Friday 53-0 by Wittenberg-Birnamwood, who the Hawks saw in their scrimmage sessions Aug. 20 in Colby.

Pines was gashed for 426 yards on just 23 carries by the Chargers, including 229 yards on just seven attempts by Wittenberg- Birnamwood quarterback Ben Weslowski.

With both teams looking to make amends for week-one losses, the team that does a better job of making corrections should come out the winner on Friday.

“It will be an interesting test to see how we can improve after this week,” Campbell said. “We have every opportunity to make this a good game.”

MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS Rib Lake-Prentice’s Damien Peterson can’t quite escape the grasp of this tackler on a short carry late in the second quarter of Friday’s 12-0 loss to Kingdom Prep Lutheran. Rib Lake-Prentice’s Brandon Heiser, with help from Michael Quednow (80), drops Kingdom Prep Lutheran’s Jaden Johnson for a 4-yard loss during the second quarter of Friday’s game.