The Nemaha Central Middle School football team headed to Hiawatha on Thursday, September 30. They hoped to go 5-0 after beating the Jeff West Tigers.
The game was underway as Hiawatha won the coin toss and elected to defer possession. Nemaha Central received the ball and ran it all the way back into the end zone. Nemaha Central was up 8-0 after they converted on the two-point conversion. It was time to see what the Thunder defense could do. The Hiawatha Red Hawks quickly turned over the ball to NC and the Thunder team took it to punch in 6 more points. The new score was now 14-0 with a Thunder lead. Nearing the end of the quarter, the Thunder were marching down the field, and finally, they scored and added the two-point conversion making the score at the end of the first quarter 22-0.
In the second quarter, the Red Hawks started with the ball. The Nemaha Central defense soon stopped them in their tracks. Nemaha Central resumed control of the ball rushing down the field. In no time, Nemaha Central had 6 more points increasing their lead to 28-0. After some stops by both defenses, the Thunder started to put another drive together. With another great Thunder drive, the score ended 36-0 at the half.
The Red Hawks wanted to get some revenge after the terrible first half. They received the ball and converted a couple of first downs before another turnover on downs. Meanwhile, the Thunder started back where they left off scoring again but without the two-point conversion this time making the score 42-0.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Nemaha Central put in their backups to see what they could do. The Thunder made some ground and entered Red Hawk territory. Nothing came of it though with the Thunder turning the ball over on downs. Neither team scored in the fourth quarter making the final score 42-0.
“We completely dominated a football game from the first whistle to the last whistle,” said Daniel Childress.
During the fifth quarter, Nemaha Central started with the ball and couldn’t make anything out of it. Then it was Hiawatha’s turn and they ran to the outside and broke some tackles and scored. Nemaha Central had their last drive with the football but wasn’t able to gain much ground. Finally, Hiawatha had one more drive, and this time they did not capitalize.
“We went 100% from snap to whistle,” said Brady Koch.
All in all, the Thunder had a great game on both offense and defense. Hopefully, they keep this up and claim the league title with an undefeated record.
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