Everybody gets into the act

Contributions in all three phases added up to a dominating performance by Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn in a 55-20 win at Hinton. H-M-S kept its Class A District 1 record unblemished at 5-0 with the win on Oct. 7.

Those contributions were especially evident during the second quarter when both teams combined to score 56 points.

Hinton struck first on a 54-yard run by Beau DeRocher, erasing H-M-S's early lead which had come on a 34-yard run by Kooper Ebel. The Hawks immediately regained the lead thanks to an 82-yard kickoff return by Ethan Diehm.

"Huge moment," Hawk coach Jay Eilers acknowledged. "Our kickoff return group really came in hard to the middle so that we could get leverage on blocks. And Ethan was very faithful. He trusted and just said, 'I'm going to run my tail off.'"

The Hawk defense stepped up next, with Ryan Borden recovering a fumble at the Blackhawk 29. That set up a 20-yard scoring run by Ebel. The defense then forced Hinton to punt. James Gellerman blocked the kick, scooped up the ball and scored on a 14-yard return to make the score 30-7.

"We felt like on film we could get a punt block," Eilers observed. "I was proud of James to get that block for us. Just did a nice job there."

The teams then traded scores. Hinton struck first on a 63-yard pass play and Ebel answered with a 71-yard scoring run, followed by his second pass interception. Trenton Vollink scored three plays later on a 75-yard run.

The Blackhawks ended the half with a 24-yard pass to make the score 42-20.

The Hawks' first drive of the second half was hampered by three penalties, but they still scored on a 14-yard run by Vollink. The final touchdown came on Ebel's 33-yard run midway through the third quarter.

The defense stopped Hinton short of the goal line to end the quarter, halting their only threat of the half. Hinton finished with 242 passing yards but only rushed for 84.

"Defensively what stands out to me is we were good against the run," Eilers said. "I thought they were going to be more of an option team. I think to play it well, you've got to take care of the dive first and our kids did a very good job of tackling the dive."

Lance Berends led the defense with 7.5 tackles, among them six solos and two for losses. Ebel had seven tackles (five solos) and Vollink had six (four solos). Other tacklers were Elijah Groeneweg 4.5/3, Ethan Wiersma 4/3, Spencer McCarter 3/2, Ethan Baker 2.5/2; and JR Araiza, Borden and Adam Schierholz, 2/1.

The offense rolled up 516 total yards. Ebel rushed for 283, the fourth-highest total in school history. Vollink had his first 100-yard rushing game, finishing with 131 yards on 12 carries. He stepped up when Travis Kamradt was injured late in the first quarter.

"I know Trenton kind of lost a year last year so he's been very hungry for this year and has just done a great job," Eilers said.

Ebel completed 5-of-9 pass attempts. Borden caught two for 55 yards, Diehm grabbed one for 15 and Gellerman had one for 12.

• Next Up: Akron-Westfield

The regular season wraps up with H-M-S hosting Akron-Westfield on Oct. 14. Although the Westerners have only won one game, Eilers feels they will present several challenges.

"Akron-Westfield does a lot of things offensive. They're going to throw the kitchen sink at us, from trick plays to options, to throwing the ball, to screens," he noted. "We're going to need to control the line of scrimmage. I do like our physicality matchup versus their D-line. But they're a 3-3 stack (defense) and are going to be blitzing all over the place. We're going to have to be prepared for that."

A win will give H-M-S the outright District 1 title. Gehlen Catholic is one game back; however, the Hawks won the head-to-head matchup in Week 3.