The Hatchet felt a big one got away when they hosted Marathon on Friday. The Raiders powered a 40-13 win with a 27-point second quarter.
“When you play well against a good team and lose it is always disappointing, but tolerable,” THS coach John Larson said. “When you play very poorly against a team you match up well against and lose, it is very hard to take.
“We got off to a decent start in the first quarter especially defensively. A scoreless game after one quarter, things would change drastically in the second.”
Marathon broke it open with several big plays, including a 43-yard Brandon Karlen punt return and 35-yard Ethan Seubert dash, both for touchdowns. But the backbreaker came when the Hatchets drove 57 yards for a first-and-goal from the Marathon eight-yard mark, and Karlen picked off a pass and returned 98 yards for a score.
“Instead of possibly making it a one-score game, it ended up being a 14-point swing and we found ourselves down by three scores, 21-0,” Larson said. “Six turnovers, penalties, poor special teams play all led to the demise of our team Friday night. It is also the second time this season where we have out-gained our opponent in total yards and have lost.”
Seubert returned another interception 57 yards for a TD later in the quarter. A one-yard Kellen Vetter blast pushed it to 33-0. Jake Borchardt finally got Tomahawk on the board in the fourth with a TD sprints of 60 and 10 yards. Seubert added a 49-yard run.
“The lone bright spot was our defense,” Larson said. “We flew to the football and were very physical. We played well enough to win.
“Next week we travel to Edgar, things don’t get any easier but I have a bunch of great young men who love football, take pride in being an athlete and are fun to coach!”
The Hatchets held a 266-184 edge on offense. The bulk of their 228 rushing yards came from Jake Borchardt (9-129, 2 TDs), Dane Borchardt 10-70) and Kaleb Kaminski 14-35). Kaminski completed 4-of -19 passes for 38 yards to J. Borchardt (1-19), D. Borchardt (1-9), Dakota Thompson (1-7, Jordan Roessler (1-7), but Marathon came up with 158 return yards on 4 picks.
The THS defense was powered by Kaminski (5 solos, 2 assists, 1 PBU.); Brandon Vecchio (2 S, 5 A, .5 sacks); D. Borchardt (4 S, 5 A); Isaac Schoone (2 S, 3 A, 1 TFL); Quin Wallenfang 2 S, 3 A, .5 sa,); Roessler (1 A, 2 PBU); J. Borchardt (1 S, 6 A); and Steven Renn 3 A, 1 FF).