Hawks Finish Unbeaten

Kerry Rodd – NSO

Photos By: Jennifer Szczyrbak

Thomas Madison ripped through the Moose Lake-Willow River defense and finished with 281 yards rushing and three touchdowns as the Hermantown Hawks downed the Rebels 59-32 in Willow River last night.

Bryceton Butkiewicz gave the Rebels a glimmer of hope by latching on to a pass from Connor Radel and taking it 56 yards for a touchdown on the opening drive of the game. After Butkiewicz ran in the two-point conversion the Rebels held an 8-0 lead.

Hermantown reacted quickly by taking the ball all the way to the Rebels five-yard line where they fumbled the ball as ML-WR took over on the recovery from inside their five-yard line. The turning point of the game came when the Rebels were stopped on downs and had to punt from their own end zone and Madison returned the punt for a touchdown making it 8-8 after Peter Grytdahl passed to Madison for the conversion points. That would be all the scoring in the first quarter of play.

The Hawks exploded in the second quarter with 31 points starting with a Madison 10-yard touchdown run and a Cody McShane extra point kick to go up 15-8. ML-WR also responded, and actually took a 16-15 lead, when Thomas Hansen bolted to the end zone from 56 yards away and Dilon Louzek added the two-point conversion run, but that would be the last time the Rebels would lead in the game. Before the second quarter ended it was James Lindberg scoring on a 10-yard run, Christian Comstock scoring from five yards out and then Comstock followed his touchdown run with a pick six that covered 34 yards as Hermantown built the score to 39-16 at halftime.

Madison continued his strong game in the third quarter when he raced 71 yards to the end zone pushing the lead to 46-16. ML-WR followed Madison’s long run with a 10-yard score from Butkiewicz to cut the lead to 46-24 after he tacked on the conversion run.

Before the end of the third quarter Madison ran for his third touchdown of the game on a 25 yard scoring dash and the Hawks led it 52-24 as the third quarter came to an end.

Lindberg capped off the Hawks scoring with a one-yard plunge and McShane knocked the extra point through the uprights making it 59-24 in the fourth quarter. The Rebels followed with a quick score of their own when Butkiewicz took the kickoff 80 yards for a score making it 59-32 after he also added the conversion points.

Hermantown wrapped up the regular season with an 8-0 record while the Rebels fall to 5-3 overall.

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