The Owen-Withee Blackhawk Football Team had one more stop in their journey to becoming State Champions. That stop was the State Championship game played at Wisconsin Rapids against the Lena/St Thomas Trojans for the right to hoist the gold ball for the WIAA 8-man Football Championship. Seventy-four teams across the state started the season with the same dream and now it was down to the final two. The Trojans had reached the big dance by beating Northwoods Solon Springs and the Hawks had beaten the number two ranked team in the state, the Highland Cardinals 23-21 to advance.

Going into the game, both teams had their identity of running the football and could be considered mirror images of one another. It was going to come down to who would own the line of scrimmage? Lena won the toss and chose to receive putting the pressure on the Blackhawk defense. Winston Poehler drove the kick-off into the endzone giving Lena first and ten at the 20. The Trojans lived up to their hype as they drove down the field getting inside Blackhawk territory before the Hawks defense stiffened and forced a punt that rolled down inside the Blackhawk 10. That’s where the Blackhawks went to work putting a 10-play drive together, combining the inside outside running of Sully Poehler and Mason Gay, that put Lena on their heels and culminated with a four yard TD run by Gay with the 2-point conversion to follow!

That lead was short-lived as Lena took the ensuing kick-off 95 yards to the house–two point conversion was good knotting the score at 8 apiece. Lena’s onside kick went out of bounds at the 49 giving the Hawks a short field to play on once the penalty was tacked on. A misdirection play, and a quick burst up the middle and Mason found paydirt and a 16-8 Blackhawk lead after the 2-point conversion. Lena took the kick and moved down the field mixing up their trips formation with the QB draw and scrambles by Lena’s quarterback. A 27-yard touchdown pass tied the score at 16-16. The Hawks had good field position when Coach Goerlitz’s special teams answered with a middle return out to the 48 yard line. Another 12-play drive by the Hawks rang up another score with Gay crashing in from the 6 yard line. The two-point conversion made it a 24-16 game midway through the 2nd quarter.

On Lena’s next possession is when the first turnover occurred when Talon Mueller put his hat on the ball popping the ball straight up into the air and Winston Poehler was in the right spot as he cradled it up for a Blackhawk recovery. The Hawks wasted little time taking advantage of the turnover. After a 13 yard run by Brandon Geldernick the Hawks offensive line opened a big hole and Mason ran 34 yards untouched for a 30-16 halftime lead.

The Hawks received the second half kick-off and picked up where they left off as the offensive line of Tim Stock, Sam Rasmussen, Jack Wendler, Colin Fritz, and Winston Poehler gauged the Trojan’s defense on a 55 yard drive capped by Gay’s 37 yard run, making it a 36-16 game. Lena wasn’t ready to roll over yet and answered with a 2 yard run keeping it close at 36-22. As they have all year, the Hawks put together another drive pulling out the stops with a perfectly executed boot pass from Dominic Sherwood to a wide open Tim Stock for 44 yards and another Blackhawk score! The two-point conversion was good, 44-22 at the end of three.

Lena reached into their bag of tricks going to a polecat formation and giving defensive coordinator Steve Kadolph his seventh formation of the afternoon to have to defend. The boys were well prepared but did give up a 1 yard run making it a 44-30 ballgame. Each team would add another score in the 4th when the Hawks tallied on another Mason Gay run for 11 yards and Lena scored on a 12 yard pass with no time remaining, making the final score 50-36 and sending the Hawks home with the WIAA 2024 8-man State Championship Trophy! What a great day for this team and the huge contingent of Owen-Withee fans who attended the game! Thank you for all of your support throughout the year! Congratulations to the Blackhawk offensive line who helped Mason Gay set two State records, in rushing for 317 yards and 6 touchdowns!

A special congratulations to the Blackhawk coaching staff and the preparation they put into making sure these young men were always in a position to be successful!