The Hatchet football team traveled to Kewaunee Friday and took a 56-13 pounding at the hands of the Storm.
After Kewaunee jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead in the first quarter, Tomahawk responded with a nice drive capped by a seven-yard TD run by quarterback Easton Phalin.
“At that point I thought we responded well to getting down early and swung momentum in our favor,” said THS coach John Larson. “That was short lived as Kewaunee would score 28 straight points to take a commanding lead.”
Tomahawk put its last points on the board in the second quarter on a nice pass from Phalin to Max Bembinster for a 36-yard TD. All the scoring happened in the first half as Kewaunee built its big lead.
The Hatchets couldn’t get their running game in gear, gaining only 62 rushing yards in the game. Phalin was the leading rusher with 47 yards on 10 carries. He was effective through the air, completing 16 of 31 for 185 yards. Leading receivers were Bembinster with four catches for 65 yards and a TD; and Ty Gerstenberger with four catches for 38 yards.
Kewaunee put up 467 yards of total offense in the game, 274 on the ground and 193 through the air.
“For the game we were dominated up front on both sides of the ball,” Larson noted. “We never really got a running game going. We struggled picking up the blitz. We did throw the ball well at times but overall we just couldn’t really establish anything on the offensive side of the ball. On defense we did not tackle well. We allowed several yards after contact and gave up some big plays. Our inability to get pressure on the QB allowed Kewaunee to sit back and pick us apart.”
Sitting at 3-5, Tomahawk has a big game coming up this Friday against conference foe Marathon to close the regular season.
“We have one game left in the regular season,” Larson added. “A win puts us in the playoffs. That alone should motivate our guys to have a great week of preparation.”