The WWSSC Blackhawks traveled south Friday night to take on Corsica/Stickney and came away with a big 36-28 win in Stickney and a guaranteed trip to the playoffs next week.
C/S struck first, taking the lead on their first drive, with a 22-yard run by Austin Tilton, but the Jaguars couldn’t convert on the two-point try. The Hawks were quick to answer with a 13-yard run by Joe Davis into the end zone. The conversion was successful with a pass, Davis to Brady Tiede, putting the Hawks up 8-6.
A Landon Ochsner interception returned the ball to the Blackhawks, but a subsequent interception by Corsica/Stickney’s Brian Joachim was taken down the field for a pick-six on a 96-yard run. The conversion again failed and the score stood at 8-12 at the end of one quarter.
The second quarter started out slow. With about two minutes to go in the half, Austin Messmer scored on a 10-yard run. That was followed up by Davis running in the two points to give the Blackhawks back the lead, 16-12.
On the ensuing kickoff, CS’s Eli Van Roekel made a 76-yard return for the score. The Jaguars were finally allowed a two-point conversion with a Van Roekel pass to Joachim.
The Hawks would not be discouraged and methodically put together an end of the half drive, finishing with a one-yard quarterback sneak by Davis and giving the lead back to black with two seconds left. The conversion failed sending the Hawks into halftime with a two-point lead, 22-20.
The third quarter proved to be a slow one, considering the pace of the first half, with the only score coming from Corsica/Stickney. Mason VanVuuren ran it in from 11 yards out. A Joachim run sealed the two points.
The Blackhawks struck back early in the fourth quarter with a three-yard scoring run by Jevon Hohn, tying the score at 28.
C/S made a drive down the field late in the fourth, all the way to the five-yard line, with second down and one to go. The Hawks made a strong defensive stand, rejecting another Jaguar score.
With the score still tied up and two minutes to go, the Hawks were forced to punt from their own 15 yard line. The Jaguars fumbled and WWSSC came up with the ball for one more chance to score. On the next play, Ochsner took the ball down the field 57 yards for the TD. Messmer ran in the two-points to take the lead, 36-28.
Corsica/Stickney got the ball back with enough time left to score, but were only allowed a couple first downs and instead gave up a couple sacks. C/S turned it over on downs, giving the Blackhawks the chance to run out the clock and secure the win.
Messmer led the Hawks as the workhorse with 145 yards on 25 carries and one touchdown. Ochsner had three big carries for 67 yards and a touchdown and Davis went 65 yards on 6-of-9 through the air. Cole Wormstadt made two big catches for a total of 41 yards.
The Blackhawks racked up 286 yards of total offense.
Jarid Bechen led the defense with 12 tackles and Messmer helped out with 11.
Corsica Stickney totaled 217 yards on offense and fell to 4-3 on the season.
The Blackhawks are now 5-2 and will host Wolsey-Wessington (7-0) Thursday night in Woonsocket at 7 p.m.