Battle Of Unbeatens In Hamlin Friday

The Britton-Hecla football team kept its perfect record intact with a 34-6 win over Waverly-South Shore on Friday to set up a battle of unbeatens when the Braves, now 3-0, travel to Hamlin (3-0) this Friday for a 7 p.m. matchup.

Coach Jacob Skogstad’s charges will have their hands full as Hamlin has allowed just six points in its three contests while averaging 50 points per outing. The two clubs have played one common opponent – Florence-Henry. B-H posted a 44-16 win while Hamlin blanked the Falcons 54-0.

“Hamlin is a tough football team,” said Skogstad. “They are very explosive in the pass game, and very efficient on the ground. Our game plan is the same as always: establish the run, control the tempo, play our brand of football, and stop their run in order to adjust to the pass game.”

The injury bug has bitten the Braves pretty hard in the early season. Connor Furman, Braun Kadoun, Trey Atkinson, Graham Fosness, and Jace Rein will not be available this week.

On Friday sophomore quarterback Jaxon Zuehlke accounted for four touchdowns, two via the airways and two rushing the football, and also added a conversion run and pass. The Braves got on the board quickly in the early going, jumping out to a 20-0 lead and Waverly-South Shore never mounted a serious threat.

Zuehlke found Daniel Person on a 40-yard bomb just over a minute into the contest to put B-H up 6-0. Bryce Hawkinson added another explosive play midway through the stanza, rambling 45 yards for a score, and Zuehlke opened the second period with another TD pass, this time from 19 yards out to Ty Fagerland. Zuehlke added the conversion run for the quick 20-0 margin.

Waverly-South Shore came up with its only score of the game with 1:55 to play in the first half, and after a scoreless third period, Britton-Hecla put the game away with a pair of scores in the fourth stanza on runs of three and one yard by Zuehlke. Zuelhke passed to Jordyn McGregor for a conversion for the final margin.

“I thought our football team battled some adversity this week,” noted Skogstad. “We weren’t as clean as we would like to be offensively, but we were still able to put 34 points on the board which is a positive. We are still growing as a football team, so we expect to see some growing pains.

“Defensively, I feel like we could have tackled better. They got us on some route combinations that are tough in our zone defense, but we need to get more pressure on the quarterback.

B-H (3-0) 12 8 0 14 - 34 W-SS (0-3) 0 6 0 0 - 6

BH: Daniel Person 40 pass from Jaxon Zuehlke (run failed) BH – Bryce Hawkinson 45 run (run failed) BH – Ty Fagerland 19 pass from Zuehlke (Zuehlke run) WSS – Zach Ries 4 run (pass failed) BH – Zuehlke 3 run (Jordyn McGregor pass from Zuehlke) BH – Zuehlke 1 run (run failed)

RUSHING: BH, 51-207 (Bryce Hawkinson 17-130, Isaiah Jackson 1253, Jaxon Zuehlke 9-13); WSS, 19-76 (Zach Ries 8-53, Cody Thompson 1-16, Colton Kranz 7-13)

PASSING: BH, 3-9-0-69 (Zuehlke 3-9-0-69); WSS, 13-30-3-168 (Ries 1330-3-168) RECEIVING: BH (Daniel Person 1-40, Ty Fagerland 1-19, Peyton Pearson 1-10); WSS (Sam Appelhof 6-82, Kranz 2-38)

DEFENSIVE LEADERS: BH (Zuehlke 10 tackles, 3 assists; Fagerland 6 tackles, 1 assist, pass interception; Person 5 tackles, pass interception; Hawkinson pass interception; Ben Suther fumble recovery); WSS (Kranz 8 tackles; Kyle Kneeland 7 tackles; Bryan Ramirez 6 tackles)

FIRST DOWNS: BH, 17; WSS, 11

So far, I think we have run the football effectively in the first three games, however, I would like to see us continue to get more explosive in that phase of the game. Defensively, I want to see our guys fly around and really start to impose our will on teams. We have done a phenomenal job forcing turnovers, and it would be awesome to convert some of those into defensive touchdowns.”

Hawkinson posted his third straight 100-yard plus game with 130 yards on 17 carries, 7.6 yards per carry. On the defensive side of the ball the Braves forced four turnovers, pass interceptions by Person, Hawkinson, and Fagerland, and a Ben Suther fumble recovery.