“I was very pleased with the way that our team came out to play Friday night,” stated Hancock Head Coach Chad Christianson.  “Offensively, we worked hard on cleaning up some mistakes from the previous week and I thought we did a much better job upfront with our offensive line.  Defensively, I thought we did a nice job of staying with the Hillcrest athletic receivers and back. Outside of a missed snap on the offensive end our starters did not allow a score.

We will get back to watching film and cleaning up some of our miscues as we get ready to play Rothsay this week.”

Luke Joos hauled in a 7 yard scoring toss from Rose early in the game and Rose then connected with Matt Thompson for the two-point conversion as Hancock jumped out to an 8-0 lead.  A 4-yard run by Chase Evink and a pass to Joos for the two-point conversion made it 16-0 at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter Rose hooked up with Jackson Koehl on an 11 yard TD pass and Thompson on a 71 yard pass to the end zone as the Owls built their lead to 30-0.  Rose ran in a two-point conversion after the Thompson touchdown.  After Hillcrest returned a Hancock fumble 14 yards for their first TD, Rose scored on a 9 yard run and hit Joos with a two-point conversion pass giving the Owls a 38-6 lead.

Koehl caught a 55 yard pass from Rose and Rose ran in for two more points in the third quarter, lifting the Owls into a 46-6 lead.  David Milander’s 4 yard run made it 52-6.  Hillcrest scored on a 55 yard run and a 63 yard pass, converting after the pass play to cut the lead to 52-20.  A 31 yard TD pass for Hancock increased the lead to 58-20 and the Comets then scored on a 60 yard kick-off return putting the final at 58-26.

Evink led the Hancock rushing attack with 140 yards on 11 carries and Thompson was the top receiver with 145 yards on 3 receptions.  Koehl caught 3 passes for 72 yards and Joos had 4 catches for 60 yards.  The Owls recorded four sacks on defense, led by two from Koehl.  Koehl was also in on a team high 9 tackles.

“This was a tough loss to a very good Hancock team,” stated Hillcrest Head Coach Korey Fry.  “Matt Thompson, our 6’7 wide receiver/tight end, really took control of the game early as he was able to make some plays on contested passes.  Being down 30 at half really put us behind mentally.  Evan Lindgren had another good night, returning a kickoff for a TD, but he could have had two more.  He ran into a blocker on one and the other was called back on a penalty.”

Lindgren led the ground attack with 51 yards on 9 carries and Caden Fischer ran for 37 yards on 14 carries.  Fischer also completed 4-of-12 passes for 98 yards.  Joel Bowman was the leading receiver with 164 yards on 5 catches.

Defensive leaders for the Comets were Gavin Knutson (6 tackles, 1 assisted tackle), Fischer (6 tackles), Cole Peterson (6 tackles), Leo Nordick (5 tackles, 4 assisted tackles), Lindgren (5 tackles) and Micah Bermel (3 tackles, 1 fumble recovery for a TD).

“We have to come out ready to play against the top teams in our section mentally,” said Coach Fry. “We are learning that we have to play a full 4 quarters of football and not a few snaps here or a quarter there. We have another tough test this week with Wheaton/Herman/Norcross. This game will be decided by who can play better in space. Both teams will look to air it out.”