Three Hawks honored in All-Lakeland football vote

ALL-LAKELAND CONFERENCE FOOTBALL

The Rib Lake-Prentice Hawks landed one player in each level of the 2022 All-Lakeland Conference football teams.

Junior defensive back Dominic Quednow is the team’s first-team representative, senior quarterback Michael Borchardt earned second-team honors for his efforts this season and senior Dominick Classen earned honorable mention for his play at defensive back.

Quednow emerged as a playmaker in the secondary in his first season as a fulltime starter. He collected a team-high four interceptions, one of which came in conference play in a Sept. 23 loss to Hurley. He recovered a fumble in an Oct. 1 loss at Ladysmith and was involved in more than 50 tackles during the year, including eight in a season-ending loss at Unity on Oct. 14, seven against Hurley and a seasonhigh 14 in a 26-0 non-conference loss to Kingdom Prep Lutheran.

Offensively, Quednow caught five passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns. Borchardt and Classen were the team’s leaders as the lone members of the small senior class to play in all nine games.

Borchardt wound up being the Hawks’ leading rusher, getting what he could behind the team’s banged-up and inexperienced offensive line. He completed just over 40% of his passes during the regular season for 544 yards and four touchdowns, one of which was a 57-yarder to Quednow against Hurley. Borchardt threw for a season-high 136 yards while completing six of 13 passes against Hurley and he threw for 122 yards while completing 11 of 17 passes for two scores in the finale at Unity. Quednow and Classen caught those scores at Unity.

Classen’s work in the secondary that gained mention included interceptions against Hurley and in the season opener at Marathon and more than 60 total tackles, including 10 in a 7-0 league loss at Webster on Sept. 9 and 18 total tackles in the loss to Kingdom Prep Lutheran. He had eight total tackles against Hurley. Classen also caught 18 passes for 175 yards during the season.

The Hawks went 0-9 this fall under co-head coaches Jonah Campbell and Michael Semon but were credited with a 1-5 Lakeland Conference record due to a forfeit over Flambeau.

Grantsburg quarterback Aaron Burkman was named the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year after throwing for nearly 1,400 yards for the league-champion Pirates this fall and rushing for 326 more. Grantsburg junior linebacker Trenton Johnson was named the Defensive Player of the Year after a season that included more than 80 tackles, including 10 for loss, and five interceptions.

Grantsburg put four players on both the first-team offense and first-team defense. Runner-up Unity took four firstteam defense spots and two more firstteam offense spots. Third-place Hurley had three first-team offensive picks.

Grantsburg reached Level 3 of the WIAA Division 6 playoffs, falling to Stratford 27-7 on Friday night. The Pirates beat Unity 35-21 in a Level 2 matchup on Oct. 28. Hurley and Ladysmith also were playoff qualifiers.