Warhawks rally by North Union

SHEFFIELD – West Fork trailed 14-0 early against North Union, only to tie the score at halftime and go ahead for good in the third quarter to take a 42-28 Class A playoff win over the Warriors on Friday, Oct. 16.

It was the Warhawks’ first-ever playoff football win.

At 1-7, North Union was still dangerous and had the Warhawks on their heels early.

However, Kayden Ames came through with five touchdown passes in the victory, three to Kellen Cameron and one a big 52-yarder to Trevor Guritz as well as a 14-yard pass to Joe Ingham.

He also carried the ball 14 times for 64 yards and another touchdown.

Deven Showalter also picked off North Union quarterback Carter Morphew for a 25-yard return as the Warhawks improved to 5-2 overall.

Defensively, Josiah Chibambo and Levi Janssen posted double-digit total tackles with 11.5 and 10, respectively. Janssen had three for losses.

Ren Heimer, who caught four passes for 72 yards, was perfect on all seven point-after attempts for coach James Perez’s team.

Heimer became the third-generation football player for the school before it consolidated into West Fork. His dad, Pete, who was a quarterback and defensive back the Sheffield-Chapin playoff team in 1980 when the Spartans lost in the opening round of the playoffs against Parkersburg, 42-12. His uncle, Dave, was a senior on the 1986 S-C team that dropped a 13-7 playoff game against eventual state runner-up, Britt.

That means Ren has one more playoff win than his dad and uncle with another to play.

The reward for the victory is a re-match with district foe, second-ranked St. Ansgar, which handed West Fork a 54-21 loss in Week 4. In that game, the Warhawks hung with the Saints until the home team pulled away in the second half.

West Fork 42

North Union 28

No. Union  8       6       6       8        -     28

W. Fork      0     14     14     14        -     42

TEAM STATISTICS

                                             NU             WF

First downs                           NA             NA

Rushes-yards                 43-264         26-60

Passing                                 39            336

Comp-att-int                    6-10-1      16-29-0

Punts-avg.                          4-40           4-35

Fumbles-lost                         1-0             1-0

Penalties-yards                     NA             NA

Rushing (Att-Yds-TD) — NU (Ryan Lang 29-155-2, Carter Morphew 10-81-2, Bryer Prochniak 4-28-0). WF (Kayden Ames 14-64-1, Jaxon McLemore 2-8-0, Trevor Guritz 2-1-0, Kellen Cameron 4-1-0, Ki Janssen 4-(2)-0).

Passing (Att-Comp-Yds-TD-INT) — NU (Morphew 6-10-39-0-1). WF (Ames 16-29-336-5-0).

Receiving (Tot-Catches-TD) — NU (Logan Odegaard 2-15-0, Aidan Fries 2-12-0, Prochniak 2-12-0). WF (Guritz 4-133-1, Cameron 5-80-3, Ren Heimer 4-72-0, Janssen 2-37-0, Joe Ingham 1-14-1). 

Fumble recoveries — NU, None. WF, None. 

Interceptions — NU, None. WF (Deven Showalter). 

Kick returns — NU, Prochniak 2-67-0. WF, Guritz 2-35-0, Dakota Lau 1-11-0, Janssen 1-11-0, McLemore 1-0-0).

Punt returns — NU, Prochniak 2-67-0. WF, Guritz 2-10-0.

Kickoffs — NU, Caden DeVary 5-146. WF, Heimer 7-177.

Punting — NU, Morphew 4-160, WF, Heimer 4-140.