SOUTH WAYNE — It’s Week 1, the season is young; keep your eye on the prize; just get better every day. No cliché in the sports lexicon was going to make the Black Hawk-Warren Warriors feel better after losing in last-second fashion 28-20 at home to Southwestern-East Dubuque on Aug. 23.
The WarCats opened the season with Zander Tierney returning the opening kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown, putting the Warriors on their heels early. BHW, the 2023 WIAA Division 7 runners-up, struggled the entire half — and yet still went into the intermission trailing just 8-0.
“We had big heads and we underestimated them. In the second half we played better, but it wasn’t enough to get the job done,” said Warriors senior Owen Seffrood.
BHW’s opening drive lasted 13 plays and 47 yards, but ended with a turnover on downs at the SWED 22. The Warriors’ next two drives accumulated -7 yards of offense, and would have looked worse had it not been for a muffed punt. BHW ended the half with just 76 yards of offense and two turnovers on downs. SWED didn’t fare much better, either, with the WarCats being held to only 88 yards and a turnover on downs themselves.
“Offensively in the first half we did not play well,” Warriors coach Desie Breadon said. “Besides a couple of big plays on defense, we played better defensively than we did offensively. Hats off to Southwestern, they took it to us.”
At halftime, BHW players faced a pivotal moment — the season was truly upon them. Piercen Mahoney got things going in the second half for BHW, scampering 55 yards for a score on the third play of the quarter. The Warriors failed on the 2-point conversion, a sign of things to come.
SWED didn’t miss their own opportunity to score quickly, as QB Aidan Colin connected on a deep route with Brody Culbertson for a 61-yard touchdown, bringing the difference back to eight points at 14-6.
Turning what was a slow slog into a track meet, the Warriors scored again on the very next possession, with Seffrood breaking free on a counter from 25 yards out. He carried the ball on six of the drive’s seven plays.
While the 2-point conversion failed again, the Warriors were about to find out points would be even harder to come by in the final quarter. Key starters began “dropping like flies” with cramps, according to Breadon.
“We looked like a circus because we’re trying to figure out who is available and who is where,” Breadon said.
Seffrood said that problem lies “totally on the players.”
“That’s something we can control. Coach preaches controlling what we can control and that’s what we can control — staying hydrated. I get it, it’s summer and we’re in high school, but we’ve got to know what we need to do to get our bodies right,” Seffrood said. “This was a big first game and we weren’t prepared, hands down.”
After a 74-yard score by Tierney against a beleaguered secondary, the Warriors trailed 20-12 with 6:16 left. Breadon wondered which of his healthy players was ready to shoulder the load.
“Coach asked who was going to be a playmaker, and I knew I had to step up,” Seffrood said.
He took the ensuing kickoff 80 yards to the end zone, breaking away from multiple would-be tacklers thanks to timely juke moves, stiff arms and sheer force of muscle and willpower. However, the score was nullified by a block in the back behind the play, forcing BHW to take snaps from the SWED 17. Five plays later — and more importantly, with more than two minutes run off the clock — Seffrood scored on a hard-nosed 5-yard rush. After a delay for a false start and a pair of timeouts, Seffrood capped the comeback with a backdoor screen pass from Eli Schliem on the 2-point conversion, knotting it up at 20-20 with just 3:57 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“We were right back in it, and we were telling them to finish. Finish every play; finish every block; finish every tackle; finish the half; and finish the game. We were starting to do that, but then they caught us at the end,” Breadon said.
A failed onside kick and a late-hit penalty by BHW put SWED in prime position to run the clock down on BHW, but just three plays into the drive, Podnar stepped in front of a pass for an interception, giving the Warriors the ball back near midfield with just 2:04 left on the clock.
Could BHW pull off a thrilling comeback win? A three-and-out, which included a deep incompletion on third down, gave SWED the ball back following a punt with just 22 ticks left on the scoreboard. On the next snap, from his own 48, Colin narrowly avoided sack but threw a fluttering pass into traffic down the field. Miscommunication in the mishmash secondary allowed Colin’s pass to end up in the hands of Culbertson, who fought through a defensive pass interference flag (which was declined) and ran into the end zone with just 10 seconds left for the game-winning touchdown.
“We had everybody cramping and second-team guys were in. Yes, they should know what they’re doing, but when we got back to the huddle, I told the second-team, ‘That wasn’t on you guys — that’s on us. Why is the first-team not in there? Why aren’t the seniors doing what they should?’ Miscommunication on one play can change the whole game,” Seffrood said.
Seffrood finished the game with 129 yards rushing on 25 attempts, and Mahoney had 78 yards on seven carries. Mosley (5 carries, 12 yards), Schliem (7 carries, 3 yards) and Jacob Woodruff (4 carries, 0 yards) also rushed the ball for the Warriors. Colin was 6-for-10 passing for 184 yards.
The Warriors get back to work this week in the heat, trying to figure out how to not only beat Big Foot (1-0), but keep from beating themselves. The Chiefs are coming off their first win in 18 games dating back to Week 1 of 2022.
“The big thing is that we learn from our mistakes and move on from it. The sky’s not falling; the season’s not over. Yeah, we wanted to go undefeated, but that was just one goal (of many) on the whole season. I said that from myself all the way down to the lowest, skinniest freshman — we have to come ready to work on Monday. We have to bring our hard hats and be ready to work because we are not getting it done,” Breadon said.
Seffrood added a caveat learned from 2023.
“Last year, we got beat pretty bad at state to Edgar, and they lost their Week 1 game — and it was a close one, by one possession, just like us. They went 13-1 and won a state title; and that’s our focus now,” Seffrood said.
