The Official Newspaper of Manchester and Delaware County, Iowa

                      Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Hawks claim District Championship
Ken Boesenberg

KEN BOESENBERG/Press Alex Boom (top photo) rips off a huge gain for West Delaware during the Hawks 21-20 win over the Marion Indians last Friday night on Brown Field.
The West Delaware Hawks overcame four turnovers with a game winning four and a half minute, 67-yard, 11-play drive capped off by BJ Hermsen’s one-yard plunge to defeat the Marion Indians 21-20 last Friday night on Brown Field.

Senior kicker, Justin Krogmann kicked the game winning extra point perfectly between the uprights with 1:17 left in the game to give the Hawks the victory. The kick was Krogmann’s third straight on the night.
Extra points ended up being just as big a 80-yard runs or 50-plus yard passes.

Marion was able to convert on just one two-point conversion in two attempts and missed their only point after kick attempt.
Both the two-point failure and the point after kick miss turned out to be huge when the game was over.

The game was scoreless until the Indians Joey Swanson scored on a six-yard pass from Eric Hanna with 10:11 left in the second quarter. The Indians Trevor Seitz scored on the two-point conversion to give Marion an 8-0 lead.

After the two teams exchanged punts the Hawks put together an impressive drive from their 20 to the Indian 25 before Marion’s Zach Blazek intercepted a BJ Hermsen pass in the endzone.

On the very next play from scrimmage the Indians Joey Swanson raced 80-yards up the far sideline for Marion’s second score of the quarter. The Indians went for the two-point conversion and failed leaving the score 14-0 in favor of Marion with 3:28 left before halftime.

Following the kick off the Hawks moved out to their own 39 where they were facing a third and one. It was then that senior Alex Boom turned in what was the run of the year. Boom broke through the line avoided several tacklers, pulled off a full 360-spin that left two Marion tacklers holding nothing but air and raced 60-yards for the Hawks first score of the game.

Krogmann’s PAT was good and the Hawks were back in the game, trailing 14-7 with 1:54 left in the first half.

The Hawks got the ball to start the second half but lost the ball on a fumble at their own 39.

On the next play Tyler Jackson picked off an Eric Hanna pass to give the Hawks the ball back at the Marion 48.

The third turnover in as many plays came on the very next play when Zach Blazek picked off his third pass of the night giving the Indians the ball on their own 17.

The Hawks forced the Indians to punt and started what would be a game tying drive from their own 20 yard line with 6:22 left in the third quarter.

It took the Hawks just 13 plays to knot the game at 14-14. Senior Tony Brown capped off the impressive drive with a 21-yard burst right up the middle. Browns score came as time expired in the third quarter. Krogmann knocked down the all important PAT to pull the Hawks even.

Marion countered the West Delaware scoring drive with a 15-play 83-yard scoring drive of their own to open the fourth quarter. The drive consumed six minutes and seven seconds.

The Indians decided to kick the extra point, having gone one for two in two point conversions. The Hawks jumped off side on the first extra point kick attempt and were penalized half the distance to the goal. Marion opted to kick the extra point, this time it sailed wide to the right leaving the score 20-14 in favor of the Indians.

Then came the drive of the year for the Hawks, one in which they showed huge determination as a team.

Twice during the drive they faced less than desirable situations.

The first was a third and six at the Hawks 37. However, BJ Hermsen connected with Alex Boom for eight yards and a Hawk first down at their own 45.

The second was a second and 17, following an offside penalty at their own 38. Zach McCool responded with a huge 21-yard run around left end for a Hawk first down at the Marion 41.

McCool would have another big play for the Hawks as he hauled in a pass from Hermsen that covered 22-yards down to the Marion six yard line with 2:05 left in the game.

A pair of Alex Boom runs sandwiched around an illegal procedure penalty saw the Hawks facing a third and goal from the Indian one before Hermsen plunged in for the touchdown with 1:17 left.

Krogmann’s kick gave the Hawks a hard fought come from behind victory over the second ranked team in Class 3A.

Marion’s last possession saw the Hawk defense come up huge as they shut down a desperate attempt by the Indians during the last minute of action. Senior Nate Allison put an exclamation point on the Hawk victory with a huge sack of Indian quarterback Eric Hanna with just over 40 seconds left in the game.

That win coupled with a Vinton 17-14 loss at Maquoketa gave the Hawks their first district title since 1998 and assured them of returning the the play-offs for the first time since 2001.

This Friday night the Hawks will travel to Vinton for their final regular season game.

Game stats
vs. Marion
First downs - Hawks 16, Indians 12; rushing - Hawks 43-249, Indians 33-192; passing - Hawks 6-12-3-68 yards, Indians 10-1-20-1-108; total yards - Hawks 307, Indians 300; punts - Hawks 1-31 yards, Indians 3-40 yard average; fumbles - Hawks 3-1, Indians 1-0; penalties - Hawks 8-41, Indians 6-50.

Individual leaders
Passing - BJ Hermsen 6-12-3-68 yards; receiving - Austin Cole 1-20, Alex Boom 2-14, Zach McCool 3-34; rushing - Alex Boom 27-164, Tony Brown 9-55, BJ Hermsen 5-7, Zach McCool 2-23; tackles (total stops); Zach McCool 1, Kyle Topping 1, Dustin Jaeger 10, Chris Harbaugh 6, Alex Boom 1, Nate Lahr 9, Jett MacTaggert 4, Tyler Jackson 2, Jamie Hass 4, Nate Allison 4, Brad McDonald 2, Tony Brown 10, Mike Havertape 1, Steve Durey 2, Nathan King 2, Brett Manternach 9.


Hawk girls qualify for State Cross Country Meet

The West Delaware girls cross country team just kept improving each and every week as the season went along. Last Tuesday afternoon west on New Hampton the Hawks extended their season for just one more race, the Class 3A State Cross Country Meet in Ft. Dodge this Saturday.

The Hawks placed third overall in a very tough field at New Hampton led by individual district champion junior Anna Reilly.

Reilly turned in her best performance of the season in a extremely talented field of runners. She was not the only Hawk who had a great race. Teammates Heather Heffernen (6th) and Holly Tjaden (10th), Renee Nurre (20th), and Anna Schreck (34th) also ran great races to give the Hawks 71 team points, 38 more than fourth place WaMaC Conference foe Independence.

Also running for the Hawks were Alaina Davis and Katie Boll.

Dubuque Wahlert won the team title with 54 points, just four points ahead of Waukon who scored 58 points.

The Hawks will run in Ft. Dodge this Saturday at noon on the Lakeside Municipal Golf Course.

Final team standings
New Hampton District Meet
1. Dubuque Wahlert 54, 2. Waukon 58, 3. West Delaware 71, 4. independence 109, 5. Decorah 121, 6. Waverly Shell Rock 131, 7. Vinton Shellsburg 242, 8. Maquoketa 243, 9. Western Dubuque 245, 10. New Hampton 263.

Top 10 Individuals
1. Anna Reilly, West Delaware; 2. Trisha Miller, Maquoketa; 3. Scotti Schon, Waukon; 4. Megan Esch, Dubuque Wahlert; 5. Katie Hemesath, Dubuque Wahlert; 6. Heather Heffernen, West Delaware; 7. Erini Anthopoulos, Independence; 8. Alex Langland, Waukon; 9. Cammy Dole, Anamosa; 10. Holly Tjaden, West Delaware.

Here is a list of all the teams in Class 3A that qualified for the State Cross Country Meet: Iowa Falls, Forest City, Nevada, Dubuque Wahlert, Waukon, West Delaware, Knoxville, Williamsburg, Norwalk, Cedar Rapids Xavier, Marion, Benton Community, Harlan, Denison Schleswig and Spirit Lake.

Monaghan qualifies for State

West Delaware junior Matt Monaghan placed fifth overall at the boys district cross country meet last Tuesday in New Hampton in a very difficult field of runners.

Dubuque Wahlert won the team title with 30 points, Decorah was second with 95 points and Waukon claimed the final team spot to state with 104 points.

The Hawks placed seventh overall with 182 team points.

Matt will compete as an individual at the State Meet in Class 3A starting at 12:30p.m. in Ft. Dodge.

Top 10 Individuals
1. Brian Koch, Dubuque Wahlert; 2. Tyler Meyer, Dubuque Wahlert; 3. Drew Burmahl, Maquoketa; 4. Michael Black, Dubuque Wahlert; 5. Matt Monaghan, West Delaware; 6. Luke Weber, Waukon; 7. Evan Neubauer, Decorah; 8. Mitch McDermott, Maquoketa; 9. Greg Robinson, Western Dubuque; 10. Kwin Koeter, Dubuque Wahlert.


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