A tight one goes to HWC

The old saying "defense wins championships" seemed appropriate for the play on Friday, September 8, in Bottineau as the Hornet defense helped overcome seven HWC turnovers holding the Braves to just a touchdown in a 7-6 region victory.

To say the defense won a championship is a bit premature, but in this case, they did step up and win this ever-important Class A Region 2 matchup with a once-defeated Bottineau team.

The Hornet defense kicked it up a notch and stopped a Brave drive inside the HWC five-yard line and also intercepted an errant Bottineau pass at the one-yard line, all in the first half. The second half saw a Bottineau touchdown to start the third quarter but the all important PAT resulted in an HWC sack and just six points.

The Hornet offense, who has had a tough couple of weeks maintaining control of the ball with 12 turnovers in a two game span, had a good first half. The running game was solid behind Kayl Sieg and overall the offense moved the ball well. HWC's only scoring drive of the night was a quick drive and came just a few moments after the Hornet defense picked off a pass as their own one yard line. QB Tallen Thorson found Jaxon Feist for an 11 yard pass and then found Keaton Keller on an 87 yard strike for the 6-0 lead with 5:27 left in the first half. The Hornets seemed to have solved their early season PAT struggles as Carter Laber stepped up and booted the PAT through for the 7-0 lead. Laber made all three PAT kicks to help seal the win a week ago over Thompson. The HWC defense made a great stop to end the half as it stopped the Braves four straight times from the Hornet five yard line with 18 seconds remaining to take the seven point lead into half.

Bottineau got on the board early in the third with a nine play 53 yard drive. QB Tukker Fedje completed passes to Easton Freeman and Khaliel Abdurrahman for 27 combined yards and then got a 16 yard pass on 4th and 13 moving the ball to the Hornet 12. From there, Freeman scored on an 11 yard run but the PAT snap was botched and the Hornet defense got the stop for the 7-6 lead. Following a Hornet fumble, the Braves moved the ball to the 17 yard line but turned the ball over on downs. The Hornets played ground control for the final four minutes of the game to claim the victory.

The HWC defense was led by four players with eight tackles or more. Keaton Keller led the way with 13 and Kayl Sieg followed closely with 11. Christian Mertz and Kiefer Finley had eight tackles each. The Hornet defense had eight tackles for loss with Keller and Finley each tallying two each. Sieg led the rushing game with 72 yards while Keller had 88 yards receiving and a score and Feist had four catches for 40 yards.

The win moved the Hornets to 3-1 in region play while Bottineau dropped to 2-2 overall.

Class A - Region 2 Football

HWC 7, Bottineau 6

HWC 0 7 0 0 - 7

Botno 0 0 6 0 - 6

Second Quarter

HWC: Keaton Keller 87 yard pass from Tallen Thorson (Carter Laber kick)

Third Quarter

Bottineau: Easton Freeman 11 yard run (run failed)

HWC Statistics

Offense

Passing: Thorson 7-14-129 yards-TD

Rushing: Kayl Sieg 14-72; Thorson 7-30; Keller 2-17; Christian Mertz 2-7

Receiving: Keller 2-88-TD; Jaxon Feist 4-40; Sieg 1-1

Defense

Tackles (assisted/unassisted): Keller (7-6); Sieg (4-7); Mertz (2-6); Kiefer Finley (2-6); Alex Smith (3-3); Izaak Richter (1-3); Nixon Buchmiller (2-2); Boston Fike (1-2); Jadyn Vollmer (1-1); Thorson (0-1); Feist (0-1); Dominik Hoffart (1-0); Gavyn Schuh (1-0); Porter Johnson (0-1)

Interception: Buchmiller

Sack: Mertz

Tackles for Loss: Finley and Keller 2, Fike, Mertz, Richter, Sieg