Pirates sail past Hawks with five second-quarter touchdowns
GRANTSBURG 61, RIB LAKE-PRENTICE 0
A promising first drive ended prematurely and after that, the Rib Lake-Prentice Hawks got nothing going offensively Friday in a 61-0 Lakeland Conference loss at Grantsburg.
Defensively, the story was quite similar as the Hawks got one early stop before becoming powerless in their efforts to stop the Pirates, who got out to a 48-0 halftime lead and added two more scores during the running-clock second half.
Grantsburg’s veteran squad featured some sizable, physical presences but Rib Lake-Prentice co-head coach Jonah Campbell said the Pirates’ speed was something the Hawks could not match.
“They played fast,” Campbell said. “They had a couple of smaller linemen who used their speed. They really had speed all across the board. That was one of the big things we noticed in their offense is you got wide receivers out there, you have a lot of fast backs, but then their linemen could move. They were pretty fast on pulls, they were able to stay low, be aggressive. They had speed to get up to backers, speed to pull.”
The Pirates jumped ahead quickly, scoring in just four plays on their opening drive. Trenton Johnson ran 42 yards on a sweep to the right side for a 7-0 lead just 75 seconds into the game.
The Hawks then put together their only sustained drive of the game. They overcame a third and 13 with a 14-yard completion from Michael Borchardt to Donovan Sutherland, who popped open over the middle on an in-route and picked up just enough yardage after the catch to move the chains. Then, on third and 10, Borchardt scrambled for 11 yards to put the Hawks at their 47. They then had a third and five at the Pirates’ 48, but Borchardt and Dominick Classen just missed connecting on a throw over the middle that was wide open. The Hawks punted and, unfortunately, did not get another first down and finished with just 24 yards of total offense.
“We had a good drive going at the beginning,” Campbell said. “The goal for the week was to move the chains and sustain drives for longer than three plays, avoid three and outs and try to get a first down every drive. We got two first downs on the first drive. Granted they both came on third-down plays. One came on a pass, the other on a scramble. We found a little bit of a way to take some time off the clock and move the ball.”
The defense then had its shining moment for the night as Logan Geiger sacked Grantsburg quarterback Aaron Burkman, leading to the Pirates’ only punt of the game.
But a short punt after a three-andout set Grantsburg up at the Hawks’ 43. Two plays into the drive, Silas Prusinski scored from 29 yards on a jet sweep to make it 14-0. An interception by Dominik Spohn set up a short 34-yard drive that ended with a 10-yard touchdown pass from Burkman to Johnson that made it 21-0 on the first play of the second quarter. Burkman returned the next punt 36 yards to the 20-yard line. One of the Pirates’ more physical players, Gavin Rossow ran for 18 yards and then a 2-yard touchdown to make it 27-0 and Grantsburg was off to the races.
“Up until this point special teams has been one of our focal points as far as playing decently on kickoff and punts and covering them and not letting big plays happen,” Campbell said. “We may have let up on one or two prior to this game. But they had a lot of decent returns against us. That was a phase of the game where we’re usually pretty consistent there and we just kinda got beat. Defensively we held a little bit every now and then but we gave up quite a few big plays throughout the first half.” Rossow caught a 19-yard touchdown pass, Ian Burkman ran for a 31-yard touchdown with 3:16 left in the half and reserve quarterback Brock Matheny hooked up with Zach Rombach on a 65-yard touchdown pass as time expired in the half. Rombach broke a tackle along the right sideline at the Hawks’ 35 and walked into the end zone there.
Borchardt led the Hawks in rushing with 22 yards on nine carries. Ethan Cook was the only other runner to stay on the positive side of the ledger with 8 yards on five second-half carries. The Hawks finished with 10 rushing yards on 30 attempts and 14 passing yards.
Grantburg, on the other hand, ran for 279 yards and threw for 107 while improving to 3-2 overall. Officially, they are 3-0 in league play with a huge game this week at fellow league unbeaten Unity.
“After that first drive, it was tough,” Campbell said. “You’d have a play not do so good and then you’d get caught in that game with the chains. We didn’t have a lot of manageable or short third downs. Field position was never great to try to go for it on fourth down.”
Things won’t get any easier Friday when the Hawks host Hurley in Rib Lake at 7 p.m. The Northstars, the defending Lakeland Conference champions, will come in a little angry after being upset 44-38 by Ladysmith on Friday. Hurley beat Grantsburg 38-35 in a non-conference game Sept. 2. They’ll play each other again in a league game on Oct. 7.
