By Morgan Rode sports@newmedia-wi.com
Leader photo by Morgan Rode Shawano sophomore Gage Timm runs with the football during Friday’s game against New London in Shawano.
Hoping to upset New London in the season finale, things did not go according to plan for the Shawano Community High School football team on Friday.
The Hawks turned the ball over five times, allowing the Bulldogs to chew up clock and wear down the Shawano defense. In the end, New London (7-2, 6-2 Bay) came away with a 35-7 victory.
“It was frustrating, because we emphasized that (taking care of the ball) in practice,” Shawano coach Alan Tomow said. “We knew coming in that New London was very opportunistic, they turn teams over and then they use that momentum to score touchdowns off of it and that’s what good teams do.”
Shawano was also celebrating senior night on Friday. The Hawks have a week 10 matchup scheduled against Wittenberg-Birnamwood but Shawano does not plan to play any seniors and will instead get a look at the future leaders of the team.
Nick Grignon, Sawyer Pyawasay, Crede Timm, Steven Hoffmann, Alex Dekeyser, Roman Hohn, Nathan Krizan and Jake Grignon all donned the Shawano uniform one last time.
“It was a great thing to play for this school, it meant a lot to me being able to stay here,” Crede Timm said. “There’s not many people out there like this — everyone is really caring, they are great guys. I wouldn’t want to play with anyone else.”
“It’s a great program, we all feel really close,” Dekeyser said. “In the summer lifting all the way up to the season, I feel like we are all pretty close. We all work hard together and are usually around each other when we are not on the field.”
While the season was not one filled with wins for Shawano (1-8, 1-7 Bay), the senior class kept fighting and setting a positive example for some of the younger players on the team.
Following the conclusion of the game, many of the seniors could be seen hugging some of the underclassmen and offering words of advice and encouragement.
“We wanted to show the younger guys that we believe in them and want them to perform,” Nick Grignon said. “We want our guys to look at each other and say, ‘I’ll go to battle with you every down.’ That’s a big thing us seniors tried to put on the table for some of these younger guys.”
“When I was a freshman, the seniors were all really supportive, even though we were just little guys at that time,” Krizan said. “They were always helping us out, teaching us plays and I just tried to be like that. We had a young line this year so I tried to help them out along the way and kept telling them that we could do this. I tried to help them as much as I could so that they can hopefully be more successful than we were this season.”
On the game’s opening possession, New London was able to work the ball down the field before Makaio Harn broke free for a score.
The team’s then each traded two punts, but a Shawano fumble on the second return set the visitors up with great field position and New London scored on the next play.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Hawks fumbled again and the Bulldogs eventually cashed in on a third down pass to go up 21.
“We turned the ball over and put our defense in bad positions with short fields tonight,” Tomow said. “It’s a lot to ask out of them to make those stops, and they held up really well and did the best with what they were given, but we just needed to be better offensively tonight.”
Shawano was forced to punt on its next drive but its defense stepped up and forced a turnover on downs to get the ball back. The Hawks then put together one of their best drives of the game before fumbling inside the New London 20, sending the team into the locker room down 21.
Junior Luke Alvarez ran for a first down on the Hawks’ first play of the second half before the drive stalled and the hosts punted.
Again, Shawano’s defense rose to the occasion and forced an incompletion on fourth down after a long New London drive.
On their next drive, the Hawks finally gained some momentum. Sophomore Gage Timm and junior Brayden Dickelman helped carry Shawano down the field on rushing attempts before Gage Timm found his brother Crede Timm for an 11-yard passing score early in the fourth quarter.
New London answered with a time-consuming drive that ended in a touchdown before Shawano fumbled on the ensuing kickoff. The Bulldogs cashed in on a fourth down run to go up by 28.
On the first play of its final drive, the Hawks were intercepted.
Shawano will take on Wittenberg-Birnamwood on Thursday at 6 p.m. in Wittenberg in its final contest of the season.
New London 14 7 0 14
Shawano 0 0 0 7
First quarter
NL: Makaio Harn 12-yard run (Vincent Winkler pass from Myles Parker), 8:13
NL: Harn 19-yard run (kick failed), 1:08
Second quarter
NL: Brady Rodgers 3-yard pass from Parker (Brooks Griffin kick), 11:17
Fourth quarter
S: Crede Timm 11-yard pass from Gage Timm, (Trace Yeager kick), 11:04
NL: Justin Wohlrabe 6-yard run (Griffin kick), 5:28
NL: Wohlrabe 3-yard run (Griffin kick), 2:02