The West Fork football team achieved 4-0 for the first time in program history, as they held on for a 7-6 win over AGWSR in their homecoming game on Friday night, as aired on 104.9 KLMJ.
West Fork on their first possession of the game, established the run with a seven play drive capped off by a three yard touchdown carry by Dax Suntken to take a 7-0 lead with 5:58 to go in the first quarter. In the second quarter each team drove inside the red zone and attempted a field goal apiece, both teams came away with no points. The Warhawks led 7-0 at the half. The Warhawks sought to re-establish their rushing attack to begin the third quarter. After positive gains on the ground, each of their first two drives of the half were halted by Cougar forced fumble recoveries. After the second fumble recovery, the Cougar offense took to the air with a 10 play drive that was concluded by a 31 yard touchdown reception by Carl Hoodjer on a fourth down. The Warhawks denied the following two point conversion attempt by the Cougars to stay ahead 7-6 with 3:41 to go in the third quarter. The Cougars throughout the fourth quarter attempted to take their first lead but were turned away by a Warhawk interception in the endzone and a blocked field goal with nine seconds remaining.
Warhawks Head Coach Dan Westhoff reflects on battling for the historic homecoming win.
“You get through an entire season, you’re just going to have a game where it’s not your night, you’re not at your best, things are not going your way. Credit to our kids for continuing to fight and battle every last yard down there. Way too close for comfort, but we’re relieved to be 4-0 for sure,” says Westhoff. “Really grateful and appreciative of how our community has come out this entire week. Our pep rallies were amazing this week. The parade was awesome. There’s a lot of excitement in the community. We wanted to perform better than we did. I thought they did a fantastic job of supporting our kids start to finish.”
Dax Suntken had 114 rushing yards and a touchdown. Blaine Shulz had 79 rushing yards to lead the Warhawks.
Cougars Head Coach James Koop shares how the team held their ground in the district road test.
“They did drive down on their first possession and scored their seven points. After that I kind of had a better handle of what we needed to call. The guys played really hard,” says Koop. “I thought we moved the ball really well on offense. We had a few miscues, penalties and had the two blocked field goals. The kids came out ready to play. They played four quarters. They played really tough. They played together. It’s just really to bad that we didn’t come out on top at the end of the ballgame. Love my kids effort and the way they played tonight.”
Landen Dennis had 199 passing yards and a touchdown. Bo Starr had 122 receiving yards. Carl Hoodjer had a receiving touchdown to lead the Cougars.
West Fork (4-0, 2-0 A-2) will travel to Newman Catholic in district play. AGWSR (0-4, 0-3 A-2) will visit North Butler in non-district in Week 5.
