The two teams combined for 940 yards of total offense, 460 for the Hawks and 480 for the Tigers.

It was, in the end the Tiger running game that allowed them to control most of the second half. The Tigers had 323 rushing yards for the game 223 of those in the second half.

Grinnell took the opening kick off and marched to the Hawk eight where their drive stalled and they had to settle for a field goal for a 3-0 lead with 7:50 left in the first quarter.

The Hawks first possession was halted by an interception in the end zone with 4:46 left in the first period.

However, the West Delaware defense forced Grinnell to punt less than a minute later.

The Hawks took advantage of a short punt that went out of bounds at the West Delaware 43.

Four straight passing plays, three of them completions, gave the Hawks a first down at the Tiger 17.
After Nate Lynch was tackled for a four yard loss, Hermsen tossed his first of three touchdown passes of the night. The first one to Austin Cole from 16 yards out to give the Hawks a 7-3 lead with 1:06 left in the first quarter.

The lead lasted less than a minute as Grinnell scored on a 59-yard pass play to reclaim the lead, 10-7, with 14 seconds left in the first period.

The two teams traded punts on their first possessions of the second period with the Hawks starting from their own 43 following the Tiger punt.

It took just four plays for the Hawks to cover the 57 yards to pay dirt. A 17-yard screen pass to Brett Appleton, and a 26-yard run by Nate Lynch got the Hawks down to the Tiger 14. On second and 10 Hermsen hooked up with Zach McCool for six points and a 13-10 Hawk lead.

Mark Messerly added the PAT to make the score 14-10 with 6:36 left in the first half.

Chris Harbaugh’s interception of a Tiger pass at the Hawk 25 gave the Hawks one more shot at scoring before intermission.

West Delaware was able to move to the Grinnell 25 before they would turn the ball over on downs with just under three minutes left in the second period.

The half would come to an end with the Hawks holding a four point lead, 14-10.

West Delaware got the ball to start the third quarter and were able to move down to the Tiger 19 by mixing up the passing and running game.

The Tiger defense stiffened and denied the Hawks a score.

Grinnell wasted little time in taking the lead back when they scored on a 63-yard run by Trevor Veach with 4:45 left in the third quarter.

Grinnell would up their lead to 24-14 just two minutes later on a 7 yard run by Cole Henderson.

The Hawks came right back with BJ Hermsen connecting with Chris Harbaugh for 33 yards and a first down at the Tiger 27. After a pair of running plays netted just one yard, Hermsen connected with Nate Lynch for a 26-yard TD pass to cut the Tiger lead to 24-21 with 1:04 left in the third quarter.

Grinnell answered that Hawk score with one of their won at the start of the fourth quarter to up their lead to 30-21. The PAT was blocked by the Hawks Austin Cole to keep the Tiger lead at nine points.

The Hawks would have just two more possessions in the game.

The first would end with a missed field goal and the second with a BJ Hermsen 4-yard touchdown run to make the final score 37-27 in favor of the Tigers.

The Hawks ended the season with a 7-2 overall record, 5-2 in district play.

Game stats
vs. Grinnell
First downs - WD 19, G 16; rushing - WD 25-91, G 44-323; passing - WD 27-41-2-369 yards, G 6-15-1-157 yards; total yardage - WD 460, G 480; punts - WD 1-18 yards, G 2-34 yard average; fumbles - WD 0-0, G 1-0; penalties - WD 6-45 yards, G 9-85 yards.

Individual leaders
Passing - BJ Hermsen 27-41-2-369 yards; receiving - Zach McCool 10-132, Austin Cole 6-49, Ryan Hauser 5-79, Brett Appleton 2-18, Chris Harbaugh 2-49, Nate Lynch 1-26; rushing - Nate Lynch 11-52, Zach McCool 4-17, Brett Appleton 4-9, BJ Hermsen 5-12, Chris Harbaugh 1-1; tackles (total stops) - Zach McCool 13, Chris Harbaugh 6, Destry Sperfslage 4, Jake Nordaas 2, Nick Ronnebaum 7, Brett Appleton 8, Corey Hood 10, Billy Connor 3, Nathan King 4, Paul Broghammer 9, Austin Cole 3, Devon Alber 6.

The West Delaware Hawk girls volleyball team upped their record to 46-0 and advanced to the Regional Finals against Nevada on Monday, October 30th in Grundy Center.

The Regional Final was originally set for Oelwein but with Nevada upsetting Waverly Shell Rock the state moved it to Grundy Center because of the travel distance from Nevada to Oelwein.

Nevada will come into the Regional Final match unranked with a season record of 15-17 including the two wins in the Regional Tournament.

The Hawks rolled past first round opponent South Tama 25-13, 25-13 and 25-8 before downing WaMaC Conference foe, Vinton Shellsburg 25-15, 25-23 and 25-14 to move on to the Regional Finals.
The Hawks totally dominated the Trojans of South Tama in their first round match.

They trailed only once in the three game match, 3-2 at the start of game two with the Trojans.

Emily Heffernen pounded out a dozen kills and Katie Wessels had 11 for the Hawks.

Lindsey McDowell had 7 kills while Katie Murphy handed out 30 assists.

Katlyn Heiserman had 19 digs and the Hawks combined five players for 14 service aces against the Trojans.

The win over South Tama upped the record from 44-0 to 45-0 and set up a match with the Vikings of Vinton Shellsburg who always seem to play the Hawks tough.

Match stats
vs. South Tama
Kills - Katie Wessels 11, Katie Murphy 2, Lindsey McDowell 7, Emily Heffernen 12, Emily Havertape 2; blocks - Katie Murphy 1, Emily Heffernen 2; assists - Katie Murphy 30, Katlyn Heiserman 1, Nicole Neverman 1; service aces - Katie Wessels 3, Katlyn Heiserman 3, Lindsey McDowell 2, Kaylin Kelchen 3, Tess Wegner 3; digs - Katie Wessels 8, Katie Murphy 7, Katlyn Heiserman 19, Lindsey McDowell 2, Kaylin Kelchen 4, Emily Heffernen 1, Tess Wegner 3, Kayla Bries 3, Emily Havertape 1.

Against the Vikings the Hawks got off to a good start with a resounding 25-15 win in game one.
Game two was a bit of a different story.

With the Hawks well in control at 21-13, Vinton made a run to pull to within a single point, 22-21.

The two teams traded points until the Hawks scored on consecutive possessions with take game two, 25-23.

Game three started out like it would be another close affair.

The Hawks led just 12-8 before going on a 13-6 run to end the game and the match, 25-14.

The Hawks were led by Katie Wessels with 14 kills and Emily Heffernen with 11.

The win pushed the Hawks season record to 46-0 and left them as the only unbeaten volleyball team in the state, regardless of class.

The Hawks faced Nevada in Grundy Center last night for the right to advance to the State Volleyball Tournament in Cedar Rapids nest week.

A successful trip would be the Hawks third in the past four years.

Match stats
vs. Vinton Shellsburg
Kills - Katie Wessels 14, Katie Murphy 4, Lindsey McDowell 7, Nicole Neverma 1, Emily Heffernen 11, Emily Havertape 4; blocks - Lindsey McDowell 1, Nicole Neverman 1, Emily Heffernen 1, Tess Reinig 1; assists - Katie Murphy 34, Katlyn Heiserman 1, Nicole Neverman 1, Emily Heffernen 1, service aces - Lindsey McDowell 1, Kaylin Kelchen 1, Tess Wegner 1, Kayla Bries 1; digs - Katie Wessels 10, Katie Murphy 8, Katlyn Heiserman 15, Lindsey McDowell 3, Kaylin Kelchen 6, Nicole Neverman 4, Emily heffernen 2, Tess Wegner 5, Kayla Bries 4.