The Broadus Hawk Varsity Football team made the long trip to Grenora, North Dakota to face Mon-Dak, the cross border Westby/Grenora co-op team, last Friday. The game would prove to be a slug-fest, with Broadus’ strong defense providing a strong bulwark against Mon-Dak’s offense, while on the other side of the ball, the Hawks would struggle to score.
Broadus held Mon-Dak to 11 total yards and no first downs in the first half, effectively shutting down their offense.
In the first half, Broadus drove down the field effectively, but a combination of turnovers including fumbles, an interception, and turnovers on downs as well as penalties kept the Hawks out of the end zone. Mon-Dak came out of the half with a new game plan, and began to move the ball more effectively against the Hawks, but Broadus was the first to strike as Johnny Richards scored on a six yard pass from Wyatt Gee. The Hawks were not able to convert on the conversion attempt. Soon after, Mon-Dak answered with a 50 yard pass for a touchdown and a two point conversion to send the Thunder up 8-6.
In the 4th quarter, Broadus Broadus was able to drive the ball down the field in the run game, until two holding penalties in succession stopped the Hawks cold. Mon-Dak scored on a run, and the game ended in a score of 14-6, with the Thunder on top of the Hawks.
The teams put up similar stats, with Broadus leading in rushing yards with 181 compared to Mon-Dak’s 128, and 82 to 69 passing yards, respectively. The Hawks averaged five yards per carry; Mondak 4.4 yards. Broadus had 13 first downs in the game to Mon-Dak’s 6.
Turnovers made a huge difference in the game, with Broadus turning the ball over a total of six times, with two interceptions and two fumbles, and two turnovers on downs. Mon-Dak had four turnovers, with one fumble lost and three turnovers on downs.
“We outplayed them in every way except on the scoreboard,” Broadus Head Coach Ross Randall commented on the tough loss: “This week we’re going to work on our blocking and discipline, as well as limiting turnovers. We were really our own worst enemies up there.”
Individually, Johnny Richards had 83 yards on the ground, averaging 4.9 yards per carry, and caught the game’s only touchdown for the Hawks. Wyatt Gee and Landen Capp also had great running games, with Gee running for 64 yards, averaging 5.3 per run and a longest rush of 36 yards, while Capp had 7 runs for 34 yards, or 4.9 yards per rush.
On the defensive side of the ball, Randall told us that Dakota Holbrook moved to nose tackle, where he racked up five solo and four assisted tackles. Corbin Irish and Jaxon Bilbrey both led the team in tackles with ten combined solo and assisted tackles a piece.
The Hawks will travel to Circle this week, where they will face the 0-3 Circle Wildcats. Though Circle has yet to win a game, their schedule has dictated a tough selection of teams early in the season such as Fairview, who Circle lost to last week, 42-22.
“We should match up pretty well against Circle, and I think if we play the game we are capable of playing and minimize our mistakes, it will be a good game,” Randall commented on the upcoming grid-iron battle.
The Hawks are healthy going into week four of the season. Action begins in Circle at 7 pm, this Friday.
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