FINAL HOME FOOTBALL GAME

Hawks Battle Walnut To Stay Out Of D7 Cellar

East Greene looks to get back on the winning track against Walnut tonight in the final home game of the 2009 season.

Both EG and Walnut are winless in District 7 football. EG takes an 0-4 district mark (2-5 overall) into the game while Walnut is 0-3 and 3-5 on the season.

The Hawks dropped another hard-fought contest in D7 last Friday night in Grand Junction to Coon Rapids-Bayard, 46-28, falling prey to the aerial assault of Crusader quarterback Michael Schwenk who scored five of his seven touchdowns through the air.

Schwenk connected on 24 of his 44 pass attempts for 261 yards. He was also the bulk of the CRB ground game, amassing 105 years on 18 carries and two TDs.

Hawk QB Tom Beger had a big night too, connecting on 14 of 33 passes for 290 yards and two touchdowns. Beger was intercepted twice, while the Hawk defense snared one of Schwenk’s passes.

CRB pretty much shut down the Hawk ground game, though, limiting Beger to a minus 22 yards in 15 carries and holding running back Schyler Bardole to 50 yards in 11 carries. Bardole had rolled up 148 yards and 6 touchdowns in just 13 carries in the Hawk’s homecoming win over Meskwaki Settlement School (Tama), 80-14, the week before.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: EG should have the advantage here as Walnut must travel all the way from Pottawattamie County to Grand Junction. Both teams have faced four common opponents--Meskwaki, CAM, Adair-Casey and Glidden Ralston--and EG has fared slightly better than the Warriors. EG fell to CAM by 24 points but the Walnut lost to the D7 leaders by just 8 points. On the flip side, GR rolled over Walnut by 40 points last week but beat East Greene by just 8, and the game was at Glidden in both teams’ D7 opener. AC beat the Warriors by 15 but the difference in the Bombers’ game with the Hawks was just six points. EG has the edge in head-to-head comparison with Meskwaki winning by 56 points to Walnut winning by 50.

Walnut’s other wins came against Hamburg (2-7) and Essex (0-7) while EG’s second win was against Charter Oak-Ute (2-7).

WALNUT TO PLAYOFFS? It would take some major upsets but Walnut, although 0-3 in district action, still has an outside shot of making the playoffs if the Warriors get by EG tonight and then beat CRB in their home finale next week. As it stands, both AC and CRB have played just 3 games in D7 and each is 2-1 and they face-off tonight. Next week, they close out D7 play with AC hosting CAM and CRB traveling to Walnut. So if AC upends CRB tonight to go 3-1 that drops CRB down to 2-2, and Walnut would head into the game next week at 1-3 if they beat the Hawks tonight. Then, next week, if Walnut were to beat CRB, both teams would end up tied in D7 at 2-3 and Walnut would get the nod for the fourth spot in the standings because of its head-to-head win over CRB.

A more likely scenario is that EG wins tonight as does CRB, and CRB dispenses with Walnut next week to finish as D7 runner-up to CAM at 4-1. CAM would get by AC next week to finish at 5-0 and AC drops to 2-3 behind GR (3-2) but still qualifies for the playoffs because 2-3 would put the Bombers in fourth place, giving them the fourth of four playoff spots. Even if AC upsets CAM and ends the season tied for third with GR at 3-2, they would still end up fourth as GR would get the edge in a tie-breaker, having beaten AC 42-6 on Oct. 2.

EG closes out the 2009 season with a road game in Exira against Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira in a D7 game that does not count in the standings. EHK/EX upset CAM last week 43-20 to hand the Cougars their first loss of the season.

D7 STANDINGS Through Oct. 9:
CAM (Anita) 4-0 6-1
Coon Rapids-Bayard 2-1 6-1
Adair-Casey 2-1 5-2
Glidden-Ralston 3-2 5-2
Elk Horn Kimballton/Exira 0-0* 5-2
Walnut 0-3 3-5
East Greene 0-4 2-5

Oct. 9 Games:
CRB 46, EG 28
GR 46, WAL 6
EHK/EX 43, CAM 20 (non-district)
AC 80, MESK 30 (non-district)

Oct. 16 Games:
AC @ CRB
GR @ EKH/EX
MESK @ CAM
WAL @ EG

Oct. 23 Games:
CAM @ AC
CRB @ WAL
EG @ EHK/EX
MESK @ GR

*EHK/EX not eligible for playoffs