Defensive effort a highlight in Hawks’ homecoming defeat

KINGDOM PREP LUTHERAN 26, RIB LAKE-PRENTICE 0

Defensively, the Rib Lake-Prentice Hawks may have played their best game of 2022 on Friday, but with injuries continuing to plague the offensive line, yards were hard to get offensively in a 26-0 homecoming loss to Kingdom Prep Lutheran.

The Wolfpack won in Rib Lake for the second straight year. They won last year’s season opener 12-0. They got a defensive touchdown right off the bat in this one and scored two more touchdowns before halftime to put this one out of reach for the limited Hawks’ offense.

“We played tough,” Hawks’ co-head coach Jonah Campbell said. “We got two or three turnovers with our defense. We felt really good about that. They played a tough game. I know it was 26-0. I think we played defensively a little bit better than what the score says. We had two fumble recoveries and three interceptions. Defensively we played really well.

“Running the ball was the strength of their offense, but when they liked to put it through the air they were testing our strength and we came out ahead on that,” Campbell added. “On offense we didn’t really put many drives together. We got a couple of first downs here and there but just couldn’t really get a drive going at any point during the game.”

After losing senior Jacob DiFrances on the line the previous week at Ladysmith, center Brady Heiser’s elbow injury knocked him out during this game, adding to the Hawks’ uphill battle to try to keep a sizable Kingdom Prep defensive line from disrupting things on offense.

“Offensively we came out early and we were able to throw,” Campbell said. “(Quarterback) Michael (Borchardt) had a little bit of time. It was kind of tough stretching the field sideways trying to run. Part of our plan of attack didn’t exactly pan out and work, but we were able to make some things happen. Once we lost Brady it was pretty tough offensively.”

Borchardt completed six of 20 passes for 51 yards in the loss. Sutherland caught three passes for 35 yards and Kaden Kennedy caught two for 13 yards.

Kingdom Prep’s first touchdown came on a high shotgun snap by the Hawks that was recovered and taken to the end zone by Qi’Andre Washington. A big run into the red zone quickly set up the Wolfpack’s second score, which came on a run by Dashaud Philips.

Kingdom Prep led 18-0 at the half but only got one more touchdown in the second half.

Among the defensive highlights were a second-quarter interception by Dominic Quednow, two interceptions and a fumble recovery for Donovan Sutherland and a fumble recovery by Michael Butler.

“Any time that ball was up in the air we had some good plays on it for sure,” Campbell said. “We got some pass breakups and were making plays on the ball and intercepting it.”

The loss dropped the Hawks to 0-8 for the season. They will finish the year with a 1-5 Lakeland Conference record, picking up a forfeit over Flambeau, who left the league last fall for eight-player football.

A final non-conference game at Lakeland Conference runner-up Unity is on the schedule for Friday with a 7 p.m. kickoff.