BLANCHARDVILLE — Black Hawk-Warren had a limited number of healthy players available for Saturday’s game against Pecatonica-Argyle due to a variety of ailments, but that didn’t keep the Warriors from running away with a victory over the Vikings.
Junior running back Lucas Milz rumbled for 246 yards and four touchdowns as the Warriors (3-2 overall, 2-1 Six Rivers) soured the Pecatonica Homecoming celebration with a 46-12 victory at Blanchardville’s McKellar Park on Saturday, Sept. 18.
“It was an interesting week with some guys being out and trying to figure out who we had available. We only had about 12 or 13 upper class players for the game, but the silver lining was a lot of younger guys got experience and playing time,” said Warriors’ head coach Desie Breadon. “We were able to shut down their run game, and we were running the ball really well. I’m really happy with the way our guys responded to the adversity of the week and having a lot of guys step up and get experience.”
The Warriors’ defense set the tone early on when sophomore Drew Stietz sacked Vikings’ quarterback Hunter Enloe and forced a fumble, which was recovered by senior Owen Huschitt at the PA 1-yard line and taken into the end zone for a touchdown. Landen Mahoney’s first of three 2-point conversion runs made it 8-0 with 3:39 to play in the first quarter.
The Vikings (1-4, 0-3) answered back with a scoring drive of their own. Following a kickoff return into Warrior territory, Enloe connected with Kegun Brunker on a 34-yard gain to get the hosts moving; and then, two plays later, teamed with Brunker again on a 5-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 8-6 with 31 seconds remaining in the opening quarter. The Warriors stopped the conversion to hang onto their two-point lead.
The Warriors took control of the line of scrimmage for the rest of the half, scoring on their next three possessions to pull ahead 32-6 while holding the Vikings to just eight total yards in the second quarter.
Milz had scoring jaunts of 9 and 55 yards in the second quarter, and junior Jovanny Erickson added a punishing 25-yard TD run in the stanza to add to the lead.
Milz tacked on TD runs of six yards in the third quarter and four yards in the fourth to cap the scoring on the day for the guests.
The Vikings took advantage of another short field following an interception to add to their score in the third quarter. Brunker out-jumped several Warrior defenders in the end zone to haul in a 22-yard TD reception from Kaden Hartwig to make it 38-12 at the time.
The Warriors finished the day with a season-high 426 total yards of offense behind their season-best 402 rushing effort.
Defensively, the Warriors limited the Vikings to just 93 total yards with 84 of those coming through the air.
“Our offensive and defensive lines were the key difference in the game, especially in the second quarter. We are starting to get back into our rhythm and things flowed much better,” said Breadon. “Pec was able to do some nice things with their passing game. On one hand, it was good that our DBs were in position, but on the other they weren’t making plays on balls. A lot of that comes down to experience, but at least there weren’t guys running free in the secondary.”
Mahoney ran the ball five times for 79 yards, while Erickson finished with 47 yards and a TD on five totes and had one catch for a team-high 15 yards.
On defense, Milz led the way with nine tackles. Huschitt had six tackles to go along with his fumble return TD, while Elijah Shelton chipped in with five stops. Stietz and Lane Raab registered sacks for the Warriors.
Brunker finished with four catches for 81 yards and two scores to lead the Vikings.
Black Hawk-Warren will head to Hazel Green on Friday, Sept. 24, to face the Southwestern Wildcats (3-2, 1-2) in a Six Rivers Conference game. Pec-Argyle travels to fourth-ranked Potosi-Cassville (5-0, 3-0).
