Hawks denied first-half entry into end zone, drop a close one

WEBSTER 7, RIB LAKE-PRENTICE 0

The Rib Lake-Prentice Hawks spent most of the first half in Webster territory but couldn’t get the big play needed to find the end zone, while the Tigers got the one they needed when the field flipped in the second half and won 7-0 to get their third close victory in three years of this Lakeland Conference series.

Sawyer Winkler got that big run for Webster, cutting back to score from 36 yards on the Tigers’ first drive of the second half. Rib Lake-Prentice’s offense, which found most of its first-half success in the passing game, did not pick up a first down in the entire second half and was unable to answer that score while falling to 0-4 overall and 0-2 in conference play.

“For sure it was a competitive, winnable game against a team we just haven’t quite been able to beat in the last two years,” Rib Lake-Prentice co-head coach Jonah Campbell said. “The kids felt it. They knew this was one of their chances to gain some momentum for the season, a big pick-me-up halfway through it.”

The Hawks certainly had their chances in the first half. The scouting report indicated some passes over the middle would be there, and they were. But the inability to get the running game going hurt them when Webster made adjustments to defend the pass as the game progressed.

Rib Lake-Prentice passed for 78 yards but gained only 55 yards on the ground in the loss. Webster gained momentum offensively in the second half and finished with 241 total yards, 208 of which came on the ground.

“The run game wasn’t necessarily there,” Campbell said. “We tried some option stuff and just couldn’t get many chunk plays out of the running game. We were relying on some openings we saw in the pass game. We were hoping that would open up some more running opportunities. The passes we did complete usually were something big or did well.”

Defensively, this was easily Rib Lake-Prentice’s best performance of the season.

“The defense played really well,” Campbell said. “There was one big play. They bent a little bit but didn’t really break. They got some key stops in the red zone and forced several punts.”

A solid return by Jonas Staroba put the Hawks on their own 45 on the opening kickoff and quarterback Michael Borchardt immediately hit Dominick Classen on a quick hitter over the middle for 23 yards. The drive then stalled on downs, but the defense dropped the Tigers for losses of 4 and 2 yards to lead to a quick three-and-out. A short punt gave the Hawks another opportunity, starting at Webster’s 44. Borchardt hit Classen in the left flat on second down for 18 yards to put the ball on Webster’s 28, but incompletions on three of the next four plays ended that drive.

Another short Webster punt set the Hawks up on Webster’s 43. A 10-yard pass to Classen got one first down and a 21yard completion to Donovan Sutherland helped the Hawks get to the six. But on fourth and five, a throw on a slant pass to Dominic Quednow sailed a bit high with two seconds left in the quarter.

“We felt good about the passing game,” Campbell said. “We felt good about who was going to be open and where they were. A lot of that first half, we had those guys open. When we were able to hit them it was big. We spent most of the time on their side of the field. Being able to finish runs was a big thing for us. We had a lot of plays that looked like they were going to be decent runs, but we kind of slowed down at contact and we weren’t able to get that extra yard or two or didn’t run through it. A couple of times we got caught when we were cutting back and weren’t able to get up to speed.”

A 34-yard run by Webster’s Brandon Emerson got Webster out of the shadow of its goal post on the last play of the quarter and the rest of the half was basically played between the 40s as neither team sustained a drive. Webster had one drive make progress in the second quarter, but it bogged down thanks to a holding penalty, two losses of 5 yards each and a fourth-down sack by Rib Lake-Prentice’s Logan Geiger that dropped Tiger quarterback Ian McFaggen for a loss of nine at the Hawks’ 45. Unfortunately for the Hawks, that field position went away when McFaggen intercepted a pass on the sideline that Borchardt appeared to be trying to throw away as he was being pressured.

The Tigers started the second half on their 37 and needed five plays to score. On second and six from the Hawks’ 36, Winkler burst through a hole up the middle and then broke to his right where there was nothing but green grass in front of him.

“Webster just got a cutback with no one staying home on the back side and they busted it out and were able to race to the end zone,” Campbell said. “Other than that, we kind of kept them at bay.”

The defense got a fourth-down stop at their 35 late in the third, forced a punt to start the fourth and got a big stop in the red zone after a pass on a fake punt was intercepted by McFaggen. The Hawks stopped another Webster drive at the 3 with 1:23 left, but with no timeouts left and 97 yards to go, they were going to need a big break and they didn’t get it. Instead Ashton Erickson picked off Borchardt on first down to seal it.

Borchardt was nine of 20 for 78 yards in the loss. Classen caught five passes for 57 yards and Sutherland caught three for 21 yards. Borchardt also led the Hawks with 43 rushing yards on nine attempts as the Hawks went to some option plays in the second half. But Webster was all over the running backs, who combined for just 12 yards on nine carries.

“We felt good about the option game,” Campbell said. “Michael had one that went big. There were a couple more where you could tell we haven’t had success off of it yet. We had some sweeps that we felt good about but got beat on one-on-one blocks. We stated a couple of times during the game we need to win the one-on-ones and sometimes when we needed it we just weren’t able to get it.”

Winkler had 121 yards rushing and Emerson added 114 for Webster.

Rib Lake-Prentice heads to Grantsburg this week for what figures to be a difficult matchup with the Pirates. Defending Lakeland Conference champion Hurley visits Rib Lake the following week.

“The big thing going into the next couple weeks with Grantsburg and Hurley is just being able to extend drives,” Campbell said. “If you can keep the ball and play it 10 yards at a time, hopefully you win enough battles to get that first down and keep the clock rolling. That eliminates their offense being on the field and gives us more opportunities to keep it close or if we find something that works, you’re not too far out of reach.”

Dominick Classen

Medford’s Myah Smith starts her swing on a serve during number-one doubles play Monday at Lakeland. Smith and Masaeda Krug were defeated in this match by T-Birds Julianna and Kristina Ouimette 6-2, 6-1.BRETT LaBORE/THE LAKELAND TIMES