Jeremy Ratliff
Reporter
Playing on the road can be a tough feat.
But that was anything but true with the Tomahawk Hatchet football team Friday night, when they squared off with the Prentice-Rib Lake Hawks at Prentice High School.
The Hatchets hit the ground running, literally.
Senior fullback Dane Borchardt and the Hatchet ground game accounted for the first 28 points of Friday’s contest and the half hadn’t even concluded yet.
The 215-pound pile driver accounted for not only three of the Hatchets’ first four scores, but racked up 90 yards on the scores alone.
Senior quarterback Kaleb Kaminski took a couple trips into the end zone as well to lock it up at 35-20 headed into the locker rooms.
The second half would bring a double shot of the same as Borchardt continued to run wild, piling up a total of 263 yards and 6 scores en route to a 64-26 Tomahawk rout.
“The win gets us one step closer to qualifying for the WIAA playoffs,” comments head coach John Larson.
“It is always tough to play on the road and I thought our players did a solid job overall in the game. Offensively, we played as well as we have all season. We established the line of scrimmage and were able to rush for 378 total yards. A bulk of those yards came from the legs of Dane Borchardt, who had a phenomenal game.
“He did it all! He ran by people, around people and through people. His success was due in large part of the blocking of his offensive line and fellow running backs! Dane is the first to give credit to those people. We also did a good job of throwing the football when we needed to, especially right before half with our hurry-up offense.
“Defensively, we did not play well in the first half. We were not reading our keys and being disciplined with our technique. That allowed Rib Lake/Prentice to have some early success and carry that momentum through the first two quarters of play. At halftime we made some adjustments up front and were able to limit the home team to just under 70 total yards, several of which came late in the game against our younger players. Bottom line is we still have lots of room for improvement. We need to be consistent with the little things. We need to have a great week of preparation, take care of Chequamegon on Friday night and clinch a playoff spot!”
THK: 13 22 15 14- 64
RLP: 6 14 0 6 – 26
Passing: Kaminski (7/14, 100 yds, TD, INT). Rushing: Borchardt (23/263, 6TD); Kaminski (5/45, 2TD); Easton Phalin (5/42); Kole Woodall (3/17). Receiving: Brandon Vecchio: (2/30); Phalin (2/27); Michael Manninen (1/23, TD).