We definitely were in the Avon Pirates territory on Thursday night with the wind, rain, and cold. We were on our own little boat, lost at sea. The Pirates were ready and played a great game in the same conditions. If you didn't see the game its okay, we lost 38 to 14. The score is better than it looked. Too bad we had to finish like this, our last game at home would have been a great finish to our season, but no one wants to give up and our Patriots don't want to either. We thank you for all of the support from our Patriots community. The bus and lunch sacks were decorated with all sorts of cards and posters from our elementary students. It is wonderful to have that happen and very encouraging to our players.
We were competing for the most part up through the middle of the second quarter and we had Avon at a 4th and 11 or so. They threw up a 21 yard pass with two of our players right there to make a play and somehow Avon caught the ball. Even into the second half we were only down by 22, but just couldn't get anything going. The highlight of the night was seeing our younger players come out in the fourth quarter to score a few touchdowns. #5 Derek Johnson ran the ball twice for 56 yards and #1 Devin Enander threw a long ball for a touchdown and made a nice tackle in the back field, so at least we could finish with some good things happening.
For our 2023 team it was very hard to live in the shadows of our 2022 State Championship team. There are so many expectations on our individual selves and our team. It makes it very difficult to find your own identity and live within that identity with the same outcome as last year. Our seniors did their best to play within those expectations and new identity. It is hard to say good bye to our seniors. They are all great student athletes and quality gentlemen. I am not sure where any of them will end up at this point, but I am sure they have great futures ahead of them.
All will be remembered for being quality gentlemen and fun to have apart of our team:
#3 Brendan Nowell will always be remembered for stepping up big in our 2022 State Championship game to run back a 98 yard interception return for a touchdown and tackling Brendan Begeman on his own down the sideline. 13 Interceptions in two years.
#11 Mason Tschetter will be remembered for his 25 yard rushing touchdown as a tightend for us this season and forcing a fumble in our first meeting against Avon to give us a chance to win the game.
#20 Cameron Noethlich will be remembered for his play during our Waverly-South Shore game; intercepting a ball and making important open field tackles and in our last playoff game at home almost coming up with an interception.
#40 Isaac Van Scharrel will be remembered for his willingness to come out and compete everyday in a completely new environment never playing football before and doing it while also running cross country.
#45 Erik Salmen will be remembered for his amazing four year football career in high school. He started out as our starting center/linebacker and moved into a role as our sole running back and linebacker. Erik had over 3600 rushing yards, over 60 touchdowns, over 200 tackles on defense in three years, not including his freshman year. It has been wonderful coaching my son and look forward to seeing what he can accomplish at the next level.
#88 Jackson Maynard will be remembered for his fun, loving attitude. Jackson is a joy to have on the team. He doesn't always lead by personal example, but he has a great leadership quality and if he does end up getting into coaching he will be a tremendous coach. His last home game of his career was a great end to his career and he can be proud of what he accomplished.
Stats for this game are below:
Hitchcock-Tulare at Avon
14 - 38
By quarter 0-0-0-14 vs 8-14-16-0
By scores:
- 1st Q – AV 4 yard run by #1/2pt run by #1
- 2nd Q – AV 10 yard run by #1/2pt run by #1
- 2nd Q – AV 6 yard run by #1/2pt no good
- 3rd Q – AV 37 yard run by #1/2pt run by #1
- 3rd Q – AV 10 yard run by #4/2pt run by #1
- 4th Q – HT 1 yard run by #8 Payton Chasing Hawk/2pt run by #5 Derek Johnson
- 4th Q – HT 56 yard pass by #1 Devin Enander to #8 Payton Chasing Hawk/2pt no good
HT Defense:
AV 265 rushing yards 5 TDs 1 fumble/21 passing yards
#45 Erik Salmen 8 solo tackles/7 assists
#88 Jackson Maynard 3 solo tackles/4 assists
#23 Blaze Binger 3 assist/1 assist forced fumble
#56 Dalton Rathjen 2 assists
#11 Mason Tschetter 2 assists
#20 Cameron Noethlich 3 solo tackles/1 assist
#3 Brendan Nowell 6 solo tackles/1 assist/1 assist forced fumble
#62 Mikael Nielson 3 solo tackles/2 assists/1 Fumble Recovery and 7 yard return
#55 Preston Wipf 3 solo tackles/4 assists/1 tackle for loss
#15 Max Gilbert 1 assist
#5 Derek Johnson 2 solo tackles
#64 Aiden Morehouse 1 assist
#1 Devin Enander 1 solo tackle/1 tackle for loss
HT Offense: Rushing 93 yards 1 TD and 1 fumble/Passing 77 yards 1 TD
Rushing
#45 Erik Salmen rushed 6 times for 23 yards
#3 Brendan Nowell 1 times for 3 yards
#23 Blaze Binger 1 times for 4 yards
#8 Payton Chasing Hawk 2 times for 3 yards 1 TD
#4 Patrick Maynard 1 time for 5 yards
#5 Derek Johnson 2 times for 55 yards
Passing
#45 Erik Salmen was 2/4 for 21 yards passing
#1 Devin Enander was 1/1 for 56 yards and 1 TD
Receiving
#3 Brendan Nowell 1 catch for 2 yards
#4 Patrick Maynard 1 catch for 19 yards
#8 Payton Chasing Hawk 1 catch for 56 yards and 1 TD
Kicking
#8 Payton Chasing Hawk had 3 kick-offs totaling 103 yards averaging 34.3 yards per kick
Kick-Off Returns
#3 Brendan Nowell had 2 returns for 41 yards
#65 Nick Tollefson had 1 for 0 yards
#56 Dalton Rathjen had 1 for 0 yards
Punt
#8 Payton Chasing Hawk had 3 punts for 70 yards averaging 23.3 yards per punt
Extra Points
#5 Derek Johnson had 1 rushing 2pt conversion