six for nine for 161 ….

six for nine for 161 yards and three touchdowns in the team’s season-opening 44-0 win at Barron.

“I think him playing quarterback, and him being able to touch the ball on every play has been big,” Hawks’ co-head coach Jonah Campbell said. “He can do a lot. They run the same offense, same stuff. I think they spend less time running the ball between the tackles and spend more time running outside. They’re getting him to scramble on some plays and have designed quarterback runs. He just throws a really nice ball. He’s able to extend plays. If he needs to run, he can run. They’ve had some other guys to develop, but he makes a huge impact.”

The Hawks have won both games since the teams joined the Lakeland Conference in 2020, winning a 24-22 thriller in 2020 and 35-7 last year.

  The Gilman Pirates look to rebound after their first loss of the season at Alma Center Lincoln Friday at 7 p.m.

The Hornets come in at 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the Central Wisconsin East, following losses of 36-0 to Thorp and 74-36 at Athens. Preparation for Gilman this week will be a night and day difference from last week when they geared up for Owen-Withee’s power running game.

Lincoln runs a spread offensive attack behind sophomore quarterback Jace Paul, who has put up some nice passing numbers. Per WisSports.net, he’s thrown for 14 touchdowns and just four interceptions in 121 passing attempts, an average of 24 per game. He’s completed 44 passes for 834 yards. He was 12 of 27 for 300 yards and five scores in an impressive outing at Athens Friday. In fact, Alma Center Lincoln scored 30 of its points in the second quarter alone.

But as the final score indicates, Alma Center Lincoln’s weakness has been defense. The Hornets not only allowed 74 points and 639 yards to Athens, including 462 rushing yards alone to quarterback Kyler Ellenbecker, they allowed 40 points in a loss to Bruce and 28 points in a win over Cornell, teams Gilman easily shut out. The Hornets beat Lake Holcombe in week three 22-16.

“We’re athletic enough where we should be able to cover the pass, but still, it’s something we haven’t seen a lot of,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “We’ve seen spread, but not the passing game out of it. They have a little strategy to what they do. They’ve won a couple close games with it. They’ve scored some points. They give up a lot of points defensively, but they’ve scored some points.”