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The
Official Newspaper of Manchester and Delaware County, Iowa
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
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Hawks end season with 33-12 home loss to Grinnell
by Ken Boesenberg
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The Hawks Ben McDonald (left photo) gets grabbed by the face mask during the Grinnell game while Ben Lechtenberg (right) makes one of his five catches against the Tigers. |
The West Delaware Hawk football team concluded the 2007 season with a 33-12 loss to the Tigers of Grinnell last Friday night on Brown Field.
The injury plagued Hawks just didn’t have enough weapons to contend with the Tigers (3-3, 5-3).
Late last week during practice yet another Hawk was bitten by the injury bug when all-state center candidate, Nathan King injured a knee.
When the Hawk captains went to mid-field for the coin flip, three were not in uniform; BJ Hermsen (broken collar bone), Destry Sperfslage (ACL surgery) and Nathan King (strained MCL).
Despite those injuries combined with at least a half dozen more throughout the season the Hawks continued to take the field and put their best foot forward.
The Hawks held the Tigers to just 14 yards on their first drive, forcing them to punt from their own 40 with 8:40 left in the first quarter.
The Hawks first drive was one of beauty.
Starting on their won 19 the combined running efforts of quarterback Dan Marshall and runningbacks Nate Lynch and Ben McDonald moved the Hawks to their own 46 in five plays.
Marshall connected with junior, Devon Alber who was seeing his first action since the early going of the Benton Community game. The play was good for nine yards to the Grinnell 42.
After a Ben McDonald running play was stopped for no gain Marshall hooked up with his favorite receiver, Ben Lechtenberg for 23 yards and a first down at the Tiger 15.
Three plays later Marshall hit Derek Klein with a pretty 16-yard pass right over the middle for the first score of the game. The point after kick failed giving the Hawks a 6-0 lead with 3:18 left in the first period.
Again the Hawk defense stopped the Tigers, forcing them to punt from their own 44.
The Hawks were unable to move the ball and were also forced to punt.
Grinnell struck very quickly after taking over on their own 32-yard line.
It took them just two plays to cover the 68 yards, the first was a 50-yard pass and the second an 18-yard scoring run by Collin Blunk. The PAT was good giving the Tigers a 7-6 lead with 11:35 left before half time.
A fired up Grinnell defense shoved the Hawk back from their own 30 to the five yard line where they were forced to once again turn the ball over via the punt.
Five plays after fielding the punt Grinnell upped its lead to 14-6 on a Ryan Mertens 7-yard scoring run with 8:05 left in the second quarter.
A safety and a 59-yard touchdown pass from Sean Wells to Trevor Veach gave the Tigers a 23-6 half time lead.
The Hawks were able to gain just 98 first half yards, compared to the Tigers 185 yards of total offense.
Throughout the first half both benches had some complaints regarding the officiating. At the beginning of the second half it was evident that things were going to change.
The Hawks took the second half kick off and moved from their own 28 to the Grinnell 8 before having a fourth down pass intercepted by the Tigers.
During that drive alone the Tigers were flagged for a roughing the kicker penalty, a face mask, a pass interference violation and to offsides penalties.
On their offensive possession, starting at their own 19 the Tigers received a pair of yellow hankies, one for illegal participation and one for illegal motion.
The Hawk defense combined with the yellow laundry on the field kept the Tigers pinned deep in their own territory. On fourth and 12 from their own 16 they punted to the Hawks with 5:58 left in the quarter.
The Hawks started from the Tiger 43 and on the first play from scr
immage benefited from a pass interference call that gave the Hawks a first down on the Grinnell 28.
On the very next play Dan Marshall connected with Devon Alber from 28 yards to give the Hawks their second touchdown of the night.
The two point conversion was no good, leaving the score Grinnell 23, West Delaware 12 with 5:44 left in the third quarter.
The Tigers would score the final 10 points of the game. The first score came on a 38-yard field goal by Ryan Mertens with 11:12 to go in the fourth quarter.
The final points came on a 67-yard scoring run by Collin Blunk with 4:30 left in the game.
The Hawks ended the season with a 2-5 district record and 4-5 overall.
With only six seniors in the starting line up in game nine against Grinnell there were a lot of underclassmen that seen a lot of time during the 2007 season. That should prove to be a good thing for the 2008 season when you add in some very talented sophomores.
Game stats
Vs. Grinnell
First downs – WD 16, G 9; rushing – WD 33-12, G 32-167; passing – WD 14-36-1-137 yards, G 7-12-1-193 yards; total yardage – WD 149, G 360; punts – WD 5 -36.8 yard average, G 4 – 34 yard average; penalties – WD 4-35, G 17-170; fumbles – WD 0-0, G 1-0.
Individual stat leaders
Rushing – Dan Marshall 8-minus 37, Nate Lynch 7-8, Ben McDonald 15-32, Ben Lechtenberg 2-11, Devon Alber 1-minus 2; passing – Dan Marshall 14-36-1-137 yards; receiving – Devon Alber 3-45, Ben Lechtenberg 5-43, Derek Klein 2-30, Jordan Mangold 2-11, Seth Engelken 1-3, Nate Lynch 1-5. |
Hawks advance to Regional Finals in Cedar Falls
by Ken Boesenberg |
Last week, Monday, October 22 the West Delaware Hawk volleyball team started its march towards the State Volleyball Tournament in Cedar Rapids during the week of November 7-10.
The Hawks got the tournament trail off to a good start with a convincing three games to none win over visiting Oelwein.
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Tess Reinig (left photo) records a kill against Charles City during the Regional Semi-Finals against the Comets while teammate, Emily Havertape records a kill during the Hawks first round win over Oelwein in Manchester last week. |
The Hawks won by game scores of 28-18, 25-14, and 25-18.
In game one the Hawks started out just a bit on the rusty side, having not played any competition for more than a week.
They trailed early 2-0 and 5-3 before getting the offense into high gear. A 9-4 run gave the Hawks a 12-9 lead.
They stretched that to eight points at 18-10 on a kill by Emily Heffernen.
Trailing by eight points the Huskies called time out to try and slow the Hawks down. The move was somewhat successful with the final score ending up 25-18 in favor of the top rated in Class 3A Hawks.
Emily Heffernen had five kills, Tess Reinig two, Emily Havertape three and Ashlee Allison one kill in game one.
In game two the Hawks took the lead with the first serve and raced out to a 19-9 lead before the Huskies were aware of what had hit them.
During one four-point stretch Emily Heffernen had thee thunderous kills and Ashlee Allison pounded a kill down the line.
Kills by Ashlee Allison, Allison Pasker and Tess Reinig put the game in the win column for the Hawks, 25-14.
Heffernen had seven kills in game two while teammates Emily Havertape, Allison Pasker, Ashlee Allison and Tess Reinig combined for seven more kills for the Hawks.
Reinig had a pair of ace serves and teammate Tess Wegner also recorded an ace serve.
Game three was much like games one and two.
The Huskies were able to put together some small runs but they were no match for the talented Hawk squad.
West Delaware won game three by a score of 25-18 thus giving them the match 3-0.
With the Hawks recording 10 kills in the game led by Emily Heffernen and Tess Reinig with three and four kills respectively.
On Wednesday night the Hawks traveled to Oelwein for a Regional semi-final match up with the Comets of Charles City.
The Comets won their conference and came into the match battle tested.
The Hawks were ready to go as they came out and played what may well be their best consecutive three game set of the season.
They were serving with great accuracy, Tess Wegner was setting the ball in the nearly perfect spots to say nothing for how hard the front row was pounding the ball.
In the back row the Hawks just refused to let the ball hit the floor without diving for it.
Charles City had a bunch of juniors in the starting line up and showed that with this years experience they will be a team to be reckoned with in Class 3A during the 2008 season.
The Hawks made quick work of game one, 25-11 before going on to take game two 25-17 and game three 25-19.
In game on when freshman, Allison Pasker slammed a huge kill in the middle of the court to give the Hawks a 13-5 lead it was nearly lights out for the Comets.
Leading 23-11 Pasker and Emily Havertape recorded back to back kills to give the Hawks game one, 25-11.
The Hawks offensive attack was very balanced during game one. Five players recorded kills – Ashlee Allison 2, Emily Heffernen 3, Emily Havertape 4, Tess Reinig 3 and Allison Pasker 2.
The Hawks got off to a fast start in game two leading 9-5 on an Emily Havertape kill.
The Comets clawed their way back into the game and closed to within two points at 13-11.
From there on it was a 12-6 run by the Hawks led by Allison Pasker who smashed four kills during that final run.
Again five players recorded kills for the Hawks. Tess Reinig 2, Ashlee Allison 2, Emily Heffernen 4, Emily Havertape 2, and Allison Pasker 5.
Game three was the tightest of the three games with the Hawks winning by six points, 25-19.
Charles City held their last lead of game three at 9-8.
Back to back kills by Allison Pasker and Emily Heffernen forced the Comets to take a time out, trailing 11-9.
Again the move worked for the short term as the Comets got right back in the contest, trailing by a single point at 16-15.
The Hawks quickly built their lead to 22-16 on Allison Pasker’s third kill of the game.
However, Charles City scored three straight points to make the score 22-19 and forcing Hawk head coach Brett Mather to call time out to settle his Hawks down.
The Hawks then scored the last three points of the game, one on a kill by Tess Reinig and a second on an ace serve by Kayla Bries.
The final point of the game and the match came on a mishandled pass by the Comets back row.
Emily Heffernen led the Hawks with six kills. Allison Pasker and Tess Reinig each had three while Ashlee Allison had 2, Emily Havertape 1, and Tess Wegner 1.
The Hawks traveled to the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls last night to face the Vikings of Decorah in a Regional Final.
The winner advances to the 2007 State Volleyball Tournament in
Cedar Rapids starting Wednesday, November 7th. |
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Manchester Press 2005-2006
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