Colby defeats Warriors 24-8 in first game of ‘23

The Neillsville/Granton Warriors may have been the first to get on the scoreboard during last Friday’s 2023 football opener, but three unanswered touchdowns from the visiting Colby squad ensured that the Hornets would be walking away with the 24-8 win. The home team’s defense certainly did not make things easy on the reigning co-Marawood conference champions in their first game of the season.

Perhaps the starkest difference between the two teams came in their success on the ground. While it took them 52 attempts to reach the mark, the Hornets racked up 235 yards rushing over the course of the game. Meanwhile, Neillsville/ Granton’s ground attack was held to just six total yards over 15 attempts.

Ivan Haemer and Gavin Voss led the Hornets offensively. The pair both totaled over 100 yards of total offense and accounted for all three of the Hornets’ touchdowns. Brody Viegut also put together a solid performance, serving as a nice third option for Colby’s offense while picking off two Warrior passes on defense.

Neither team could gather much of a foothold over the first 19 minutes of the game and it was not until late into the second quarter that the scoreboard saw any change. Neillsville/Granton’s Bryce Erikson broke the 0-0 tie when he found his receiver Ashten Schultz for a 46-yard strike. Following a successful two-point conversion, the Warriors led 8-0 with just over five minutes left in the first half.

The Hornets quickly responded, taking less than a minute to knot things back up. Haemer closed the deal with an 11-yard touchdown run to score Colby’s first points of the season and followed it up by finding the endzone again on the ensuing two-point conversion.

It would not be until the midway point of the third quarter before another score, but it was a familiar face for the Hornets finding his way into the endzone. Following a 30-yard run from Voss, Haemer scored his second touchdown of the evening with a 39-yard run of his own. The fullback punched in his second two-point conversion as well and put Colby up 16-8 for their first lead of the game.

In the fourth quarter, it looked like things had taken a turn for the worse for the visitors when a bad snap on a punt gave the Warriors excellent field position. Neillsville/ Granton had largely turned from the run game and while they had not completed many passes in the second half, the short field could give them the opportunity they needed to tie up the game. However, Voss came up with a big play for the Hornets when they needed it most, stripping the ball from Erikson while he dropped back to pass. Voss recovered the fumble, halting the Warriors drive and giving possession back to Colby.

Momentum once again flipped to the Hornets as they went on their longest drive of the evening. Just as he had ended Neillsville’s previous possession, Voss finished off Colby’s final push with a 23-yard touchdown run. Quarterback Tayt Smith found Braiden Johnson on the two-point conversion to put the Hornets up 24-8 with just under three minutes to play and the Hornets defense did the rest to pick up the team’s first win.

Colby’s defense was impressive in the second half, holding Neillsville/Granton to -1 yards on the ground and Erikson to just 2-13 passing for 29 yards.

“I thought for our first game of the year, we had moments where we played well and some moments where our inexperience showed,” head coach Jim Hagen said following the game. “Going into this season, we have three players offensively and only two players defensively who have a great deal of varsity playing time and experience, so this game was a huge learning curve for a lot of players. Even though we got behind early, we kept our poise throughout the game and in the second half, we played with a lot more physicality on the line of scrimmage which was good to see.”

Haemer ended the day with 88 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries and Voss added 83 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries. Viegut picked up 44 yards on eight carries and Smith and Connor Orth both had 10 yards each.

Smith completed four of his 14 pass attempts for 45 yards. He also had an interception. Voss had one reception for 22 yards, Haemer had two for 21 and Viegut added one for 20.

Voss and Luis Nava Rojas led the team with three total tackles each in a game where 17 incompletions and only 15 rushes by the Warriors made it so the Hornets did not need to record many tackles.

The Hornets will host Spencer/Columbus this Friday, Aug. 25 at 7 p.m. The visiting co-op club will be coming off a 70-0 defeat to Saint Croix Central, a game in which the Panthers did not score in the fourth quarter.