Hawks bow to Lions in Kawartha gridiron finale
By Terrance Gavan
If you know the hurt.
If you can recall a time when you cried after a tough loss in a sudden-death playoff.
If you are familiar with the punctured pangs of “if-only’s” or “what-if’s” that play ceaselessly through a revolving loop of noodle-borne video.
If.
If, after a seminal loss, you have found yourself reflecting, somewhat bitterly, on a Rudyard Kipling rant and rhyme of the same name.
Then you may find it easier to relate to the entrenched disappointment felt by a Hal High senior football team.
A Red Hawks’ football team that found thwarted dreams at the end of no rainbow last Friday afternoon at Gary Brohman Field in a 21-7 loss to the Adam Scott Lions.
The loss after a lovely season in the sun, wind and cold drizzle drifting off Head Lake
The Lions - who finished their regular season at 5-1 - won their Kawartha semi final 20-7 over Holy Cross last Tuesday. Adam Scott actually handed the Hawks their only setback of the season, a14-7 exhibition game loss on an off-Friday, earlier this year.
Not much in the way of surprises in this championship final.
The Hawks relied on their steady, sturdy tailback Tyler Wood to carry the ball. The Adam Scott coaching staff did its de rigueur homework and had several players keying on the Hawks most potent asset.
Quarterback Scott Griffith was given a green light to throw the ball and completed several nice passes to Luke Watson.
Early Adam Scott turnovers including a Watson interception and a subsequent fumble recovery gave the Hawks two strategic field positions from the Adam Scott 30 and 35 yard lines late in the first and early in the second quarter.
On both occasions the Hawks failed to score a point.
With only 1:46 left in the first half Lions quarterback Alec Reid capped a 63-yard drive with a five-yard touchdown pass on second and goal from the five. The impressive drive was paced by their diminutive tailback Tyler Stinnison who ran both off-tackle and up the gut to power to three drive-sustaining first downs in that half-ending touchdown march.
The Lions took that 7-0 lead to the halftime break, with the game still very much in doubt.
That changed suddenly in the third quarter when Stinnison scored from deep in Lions territory, galloping for a 63 yard scamper to paydirt and a 14-0 lead.
The heart-wrenching component of that play revolved not around the deadening finality of the final 40 yards of uncontested turf, but in the fact that Stinnison had been wrapped up five yards behind the line of scrimmage by three Hawk defenders.
After emerging miraculously from that scruffle, Stinnison was hit twice more at the line of scrimmage before suddenly emerging from the fray; and looking at a literal cakewalk to the endzone.
With so much time invested into what - until that uncharacteristic play - had been a superb defensive battle, the untimely lapse hit the Hawks’ sideline with a resounding and almost palpable thud.
The Lions scored again with 4:45 left in the fourth quarter after Hawks punt returner Greg Baumgartner made a valiant attempt to remove the ball from the endzone and subsequently fumbled, resulting in a Lions special teams touchdown.
The 21-0 deficit late in the fourth quarter was soul-sucking.
But the Hawks never quit.
Not once.
Epitomized by a Scott Griffith scramble for a TD – followed by a Jesse Lefebvre convert - with under a minute left in the game.
Coach Tim Davies and Derek Little tended to the team in a post game huddle.
Always a hard time for both coaches and players; and for many Hawks, the end of a long season was etched in bas-relief on their mud-soaked faces.
Disappointment.
Something that coach Davies addressed post-game.
“There’s always a lot of emotion that’s going to come out at this point in time,” said Davies, checking over his shoulder to ensure that his team was okay. “We had some chances in the first half and we didn’t capitalize and then we had a chance at two field goals that went just wide.”
He concurred that the Stinnison touchdown was a pivotal turning point.
“You know what?” said Davies. “He should have been tackled in the backfield five yards deep and (because it was a second down) they should have been punting against the wind on that play.”
Of course Davies knows it’s folly to reach back in hindsight.
“All week we communicated to our young men that every play was a potential TSN turning point,” said Davies. “So we told them to get ready to play every play like it was the big play.”
Davies said they had their chances, but, the big plays went the other way on Friday afternoon at Gary Brohman Field.
“They’re a very good team,” said Davies. “They beat us earlier in that exhibition and although the coaching staff said they were green this year, graduating 17 starters from last year, But I said to coach Kula earlier this season that I thought they would be there in the end.
“So kudos to them, they played well.”
Pivot Scott Griffith, playing his cohort year was one player who realized just how much was at stake and he wore the loss like a veteran.
Disappointment etched on that muddied face, he was disappointed but his gaze was direct and eyes clear.
“They (Adam Scott) were really good today,” said Griffith
The sallow reconstruction now left to the coaches.
The summary of this season already written on the big board.
And no Hawks heads’ hung as coach Davies presented the trophy at center field to the Lions.
And if?
Nuzzled in the muzzle of next year.
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