In a battle of the top two teams in class 9B, the #1 Colman-Egan Hawks defeated the #2 Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinals 44-26 on Friday, October 11th in Colman on a cold and windy night. The Hawks scored the first two touchdowns of the game and never trailed.
After forcing the Cardinals to punt on their opening drive, Colman-Egan scored on their first possession on a four-yard run by Nate Tolley. The two-point conversion was no good. The Hawks took advantage of an interception and scored again on a Tolley run with just over 5:00 to play in the first quarter. Eli Bowen scored the two-point conversion for a 14-0 lead. St Mary cut into the lead with just :33 left in the quarter on a great catch by Weston Geraets in the back of the end zone. The two-point conversion was no good, and the Cardinals trailed 14-6 after the first quarter.
Tolley scored again for Colman-Egan on a one-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter. The two-point conversion was also made by Tolley to give the Hawks a 22-6 lead. Connor Libis pulled the Cardinals within a score after a 19-yard touchdown run. Libis scored the two-point conversion to make the score 22-14 with 1:12 to play in the half. Tolley had a big run to set the Hawks up in Cardinal territory with :55 to play. Colman-Egan was able to finish the drive in the end zone as Tolley scored again on a one-yard run and also scored the two-point conversion. Colman-Egan led 30-14 at halftime.
St Mary had to kickoff to start the 3rd quarter, and Noah Dennis sent a high kick straight into the wind. The wind held the ball up in the air, and that turned into a break for St Mary. The ball fell to the ground, and the Cardinals fell on the ball for an impromptu onside kick recovery. St Mary took advantage of the break and scored on a four-yard pass from Libis to Eli Longville to cut the lead to 30-20. The St Mary defense recovered a fumble in Hawk territory giving the Cardinals a chance to cut the lead even more on the ensuing Hawk possession. However, Colman-Egan’s defense kept the Cardinals out of the end zone and ran out the third quarter leading 30-20.
Chase Hemmer scored for Colman-Egan early in the fourth quarter on a seven-yard run, and Tolley connected with Dalton Voelker for the two-point conversion to push the lead to 38-20. Libis scored on a two-yard run with 7:22 to play in the game to cut the lead to 38-26. Colman-Egan, though, scored on a 12-yard run by Tolley with 2:19 to play in the game to seal the victory.
St Mary finished with 241 yards of total offense, 144 rushing yards and 97 passing yards. Colman-Egan had 305 yards of total offense, 285 rushing yards and 20 passing yards.
Libis had 23 carries for 96 yards and two touchdowns and also went 10-19 passing for 97 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Geraets had six catches for 69 yards and a touchdown. Longville had four catches for 29 yards and a touchdown.
Head coach Ross Flemmer said, “The kids played hard tonight. I’m proud of their effort. We will learn from our mistakes and get better heading into the playoffs.”
The Cardinals (6-1) will play the Oldham-Ramona/Rutland Raiders in Ramona on Friday, October 18th.