Hawk Football Wins First Game

The Broadus Hawk Varsity football team notched their first win of the season on Friday against a tough Ekalaka Bulldog squad while playing in Ekalaka.

The win marks the first game as head coach for Wyatt Williams, who takes over this year after a stint as assistant coach in years past. Joining Williams as assistant coaches are Brett Emmons, Matt Hagedorn, Elliott Barnhart, and Frankie Schoonover, who we noticed running the team through a vigorous weightlifting circuit during practice on Monday.

Twenty three athletes are out for the team this year, with the numbers distributed widely across the age spectrum from Freshman to Senior. Three members of the team are Seniors, including Colton Biesheuvel, Paysen Kuhbacher, and Colton Playle.

Overall the team is relatively light and fast, with three players listed at over 200 lbs on the roster.

This season with the conference re-alignment, Broadus moves to the new Southeastern 8 man division. Other teams in the division include Forsyth, Park City, Joliet, Lame Deer, Lodge Grass, and St. Labre. The move presents a challenge when some of the teams fail to field a team, such as Lame Deer, which this season will only play a JV season due to not playing in previous years. In order to fill out the season, non-conference games are an option, including this coming weekend when Broadus will face Belt in a game played at Lavina (Belt had a 7-2 record last year). The JV will play at 11 AM, the Varsity at 1 PM.

Back to the game at Ekalaka, the weather started out nice, with Broadus scoring in the first quarter and missing the two-point conversion to go up 6-0.

Following a lightning delay from a passing storm, Coach Williams told us that Broadus lost all their momentum, while Ekalaka seemed to come alive, rattling off 20 points on the Hawks in the second quarter to go into the half up 20-6.

During half-time the Broadus coaching staff re-assessed the situation, and in the third quarter Ekalaka received the kickoff and drove down to the one yard line, within striking distance of sending the game into a nearly insurmountable lead.

At that point the Hawk defense decided enough was enough, and kept the Bulldogs from finding the end zone. The ensuing turnover on downs seemed to strike new life into the Broadus offense as they drove down the field 79 yards to score, then kept the pedal to the metal as they put up 20 points in the third quarter to lead 26-20.

As Ekalaka drove back down the field, Kail Irish had a big stop on defense with a tackle in the backfield to stop the Bulldogs. The final moments of the fourth quarter ticked down and Broadus was able to pull out the win.

Williams commented: "Our defense held strong in the second half, and our offensive line did their jobs well. Cooper Zimmer [Broadus QB] saw the field well, and we pulled off a tough win."

Stats from the game were not yet fully complete at the time of printing, and will be published when available.

Following the game this Saturday at Lavina, Broadus will travel to Lodge Grass on Sept 9th, then host Joliet for Homecoming. Joliet is coming off a big win against Scobey last weekend, and will likely prove to be a tough test for the Hawks.