Warhawks go to 2-0 with rout of Newman

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Warhawks go to 2-0 with rout of Newman

By Kristi Nixon

SHEFFIELD — West Fork quarterback Kayden Ames described the season for his Warhawks so far as Madden-like.

With the numbers he and his teammates have been putting up so far, especially in West Fork’s 35-6 win over Mason City Newman on Friday, Sept. 11, Ames isn’t too far off.

“A lot of fun,” Ames said. “Last year when he (Kellen Cameron) just handed the ball off, and I didn’t play very much…I’d rather (play more). This year, when we switched the offensive coordinator, throw a lot and all of that that is a lot more fun. Plays like Madden.

“I mean,” Ames said, “(it is) similar.”

Ames was unofficially 9-of-16 passing for 229 yards and three touchdowns, two to Ren Heimer and another long pass to Cameron and he unofficially rushed 18 times for 85 yards and another score.

West Fork second-year head coach James Perez wouldn’t describe it that way, but he had his own comparison.

“Both (Ren and Kayden) do a nice job,” Perez said. “You can’t count out Kellen, too. The three of them do a nice job. We have a three-headed monster: It’s fun to watch. We hope to throw Jo(siah Chibambo) in there, too, later in the year and just keep kind of evolving.”

All told, West Fork put up 407 unofficial yards off offense against the Knights in improving to 2-0. Ames gave his offensive line credit for those video game numbers.

“They are…they don’t even know what play is coming, you tell them a number and they know what to do,” Ames said. “They do it every single time. They do a fantastic job. Without them, none of this is possible. We wouldn’t have a score like this.”

Despite going 3-and-out to start the game and then allowing Newman an extended drive in the first quarter for a span of 14 plays that ended up dying on the eight-yard line, West Fork got its offense going through the steady mist of a rain that never let up throughout the contest.

The Warhawk defense held the Knights to 170 yards and one score that brought the visitors within one in the second quarter. West Fork never trailed.

Considering Newman was 2-0 going in, that is impressive.

“It’s Newman, so whether they are 2-0 or 0-2, we want to beat them just as much,” Ames said. “It’s just Newman. The rivalry, I guess.”

Perez added, “Newman’s a great football team, they’ve got great tradition, we knew it was going to be a tough game. We had to grind on our field and you know we talked about the kids always play well and we need to continue that intensity and go from there.”

The Warhawks got on the scoreboard first with a pair of big pass plays, one to Chibambo for 35 and another for 38 to Trevor Guritz and was capped off on a one-yard run by Ki Janssen.

After Newman got within 7-6 and facing 3-and-5 from the 37, Ames connected with Heimer for 63 yards.

The Knights turned the ball over on downs while going for it on fourth down and recovering a fumble for negative yards that set up a 43-yard field goal that didn’t go for Heimer as the first half expired.

Heimer hit on all five of his point-after attempts.

Ames picked off Tim Castle on Newman’s first offensive series of the second half and drove seven plays that culminated in an 11-yard pass to Heimer.

Another negative yardage running attempt on fourth down followed by Newman after eight plays that led to one of the few offensive series that did not lead to a West Fork score. However, the Knights were unable to move the ball and Ames connected with Cameron for 42 just three plays later to make it 28-6.

Chibambo’s fumble recovery on the next Newman play led to a short field and Ames’ nine-yard touchdown run to cap it off.

“They played great,” Perez said. “It’s good to see them play four quarters, we always strive to do that.”

The toughest test West Fork faces comes this Friday night at Class A second-ranked St. Ansgar.

“They are always good, they’re going to be good,” Ames said. “They are going to be tough, hit hard, they’re going to be physical, so we’re going to have to be physical with them. We’ll see how it goes.”

Perez added, “It’s going to set the tempo for the rest of the season. They are the top-ranked team of the state and they are going to continue to be. They always do. Drew (Clevenger) does a nice job up there and it should be a good test to see where we are at. I don’t think we have much to lose in that game and just see what happens.”

West Fork 35

Newman 6

Newman    0       6       0       0        -       6

W. Fork      7       7       7     14        -     35

First quarter scoring — WF, Ki Janssen 1 run (Ren Heimer kick) 0:09

Second quarter scoring — MCN, Jack Maznio 8 run (kick fail) 5:51; WF, Heimer 63 pass from Kayden Ames (Heimer kick) 2:42.

Third quarter scoring — WF, Heimer 11 pass from Ames (Heimer kick) 6:42.

Fourth quarter scoring — WF, Kellen Cameron 42 pass from Ames (Heimer kick) 7:55; WF, Ames 9 run (Heimer kick) 6:18.

Rushing (Att-Yds-TD) — Newman (Cade Schilling 20-75-0, Jack Maznio 13-68-1, Noah Hamilton 1-2-0, James Jennings 6-(14)-0, Tim Castle 3-(18)-0. WF (Kayden Ames 18-85-1, Ki Janssen 7-34-1, Jaxon McLemore 3-43-0, Trevor Guritz 5-31-0, Josiah Chibambo 2-16-0, Kaden Petersen 1-2-0).

Passing (Att-Comp-Yds-TD-INT) — Newman (Castle 2-4-59-0-1; Jennings 1-4-(2)-0-0); WF (Ames 9-16-229-3-0).

Receiving (Tot-Catches-TD) — Newman (Nash Holmgaard 2-59-0, Schilling 1-(2)-0; WF (Ren Heimer 3-89-2, Kellen Cameron 3-64-1, Guritz 2-41-0, Chibambo 1-35-0).

Fumble recoveries — Newman, None; WF (Chibambo).

Interceptions — Newman, None; WF, Ames.

Kick returns — Newman, Holmgaard 2-50, Hamilton 1-20, Schilling 1-5. WF, Guritz 2-17.

Punt returns — Newman, None; WF, None.

Kickoffs — Newman, Schilling 2-100. WF, Heimer 6-321.

Punting — Newman, None; WF, Guritz 1-31.