Learning to Fly
By Dan Ward

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Football doesn’t care if you’re young, inexperienced, or still figuring things out. It hits you in the mouth and makes you answer. St. Johns got that lesson in a hurry Thursday night, opening the season with a hard-fought loss to Hamilton that came down to a couple of costly mistakes and some tough sledding up front. A young offensive line battled through its first real test, but there were times when the inexperience showed. It wasn’t the start they wanted, but it was a start — and for a team still learning how to play together, Thursday night was another step in learning to fly.

Coach Schmitt said, “I thought our guys came ready to play. We played hard tonight, but they controlled the line of scrimmage, which is our goal every game. There were a few key turnovers and mistakes that happened that made a big difference in the game. We will continue to clean things up and improve every week moving forward.”

I missed most of the exciting 1st qtr. Something about forgetting to set the navigation to allow highways after vacation: I discovered my error somewhere south of Lowell. The place was packed. St. Johns has won the last 2 games against Hamilton and the Hawkeyes needed a win to even up the series.

Hamilton opened up the scoring with a 61-yard touchdown pass and a successful extra point.
St. Johns came back and scored on a 13-yard pass from Conner Kurncz to Ian Smith. The extra point was no good, and the Hawkeyes were up 7-6.
Late in the 1st qtr, St. Johns scored the go-ahead when Archer Gurski plowed ahead for a 6-yard touchdown. Myles Jones’ extra point attempt was good, and the Friday Night Heroes were up 13-7.

Hamilton drove down the field to start the second quarter and scored on a 10-yard pass. With a successful extra point, the Hawkeyes took the lead 14-13.

A touchback had the Redwings start at their twenty. Ian Smith picked up a first down to give the Redwings some breathing room, but this is where the O-line stumbled a bit. A sack moved the ball back 10 yards, and Gurski was stopped after a yard on the next play. Third Down saw a high snap fall into the Hawkeye defender’s hands, and he took the ball to the St. John’s 14-yard line. The Defense tried to keep them out of the end zone with stops by Gurski and Lucas McCastle, but the Hawkeyes punched it in from the 2-yard line, and with a two-point conversion, the Hawkeyes took hold of the game, 22-13.

St. Johns wasn’t ready to pack it in; however, Archer Gurski took the ensuing kickoff from about the 4-yard line all the way down to the 2-yard line. The Redwings punched it in on the next play, and Jones’ extra point was good, bringing the score to 22-20 Hawkeyes.

The Hawkeyes weren’t done either, and with 1:19 to go, they broke free for a 42-yard run. The extra point was good after a false-start penalty moved them back, and the score was 29-20.
St. Johns got a bit of a drive going with completions to Gurski and Smith but a huge sack and a couple of incompletions stalled it and Hamilton took over on downs and took a knee to go into the half.

The third quarter saw Hamilton squib kick to St. Johns. They couldn’t get much going and ended up punting to Hamilton.

Hamilton scored with 8:40 to go in the 3rd. Their 2-pt conversion attempt was stopped, and the score was 35-20 at this point.

Conner Kurncz did what he does so well, and the Red Wings started moving the ball again with completions to Tyler Priest, Cody Carn, Gurski, and Smith. But his one interception proved costly when a Hawkeye defender was in the wrong place at the right time and returned it for a touchdown. The Hawkeyes tacked on the extra point to make the score 42-20.
The Redwings made a game of it, with Kurncz completing more of his 21-for-30 passes. Cody Carn punched it in from 10 yards out to bring the Redwings back into the game, 27-42, with the extra point.

The 4th quarter was a back-and-forth battle. St. Johns scored with 2:00 on the clock when McCastle went in from 2 yards out. The extra point was blocked, and the score sat at 42-33.
The Hawkeyes recovered the onside kick and closed it out.
The final score was 42-33, Hawkeyes over the Redwings.

Here is my super scientific hot dog ranking for Hawkeye Stadium.
Dog Rating: 3.25/5
Dog: 3/5
Bun: NA (I don’t eat bread)
Toppings: 4/5 (Ketchup and Mustard)
Value: 3/5 (Average price)
Game-Day Factor: 3/5
Overall: “Won’t make you forget the score.”

In other football action, JV A dominated the Hawkeyes 52-7, and JV B took down Warren De LaSalle 26-14. Middle School and SJYAA haven’t started yet.

JV A travels to Ionia, and JV B, I THINK I heard, was Lakewood (?). Don’t quote me on that one. If you show up and it’s not the Redwings, stick around and root against Lakewood.

I’m not sure when the 7th and 8th grades start, but the 4th-6th grades have scrimmages on Monday in Grand Ledge.

The Varsity will get things back on track Thursday, Sept 3rd, when the Ionia Bulldogs come to town. Ionia is fresh off a loss to Fremont 20-6 and will also be looking for a little revenge after last year. So be sure to push your vacation plans back one day as we prepare to own M-21 bragging rights and induct our latest class of Hall of Famers. But if you can’t check back here because I’m back on the payroll.