Hawks Tumble In Ot Willard, Hall Come Up Big In Lumberjacks’ 36-28 Win
Both the Lakeland Hawks and the St. Maries Lumberjacks must have realized the importance of their Intermountain League football game Friday.
But apparently nobody knew it more than Skylar Willard and Justin Hall.
The two Lumberjack juniors came up with huge efforts in leading St. Maries to a 36-28 overtime win over the Hawks before about 300 fans at Lakeland’s Corbit Field.
Willard, who has been impressive in earlier efforts for the Lumberjacks (5-2, 2-1) may have had his best outing of the season, throwing for 237 yards and a touchdown.
And Hall came up with a several key defensive plays.
Willard’s most impressive stat came in the second half.
Locked in a battle with Lakeland quarterback Kurt Reese and facing a 14-14 tie at halftime, Willard stepped up his game after intermission.
Facing constant pressure from the Lakeland defense, he calmly connected on all ten of his pass attempts and finished with 18 completions in 22 attempts.
His main target was senior wide receiver Jeremy Craner who finished with 12 catches for 139 yards.
“This was a real important game for us,” Willard said. “We win the next two games and we’re Intermountain League champs.”
But Willard’s effort almost wasn’t enough.
The Hawks, finding themselves down 28-21 with just under eight minutes remaining, drove 62 yards in four plays to close to within 28-27 with sophomore Harrison Bertsch going the last 20 yards untouched on a burst up the middle.
After failing to draw St. Maries offsides on the two-point conversion attempt, the Hawks elected to go for the tie with 6:16 remaining. Reese’s kick was good.
After forcing St. Maries to punt on its next possession, the Hawks got the ball back and had a chance to win it in regulation, but a 36-yard field-goal attempt by Reese fell short.
St. Maries got the ball first in the Kansas tie-breaker and after a 9-yard pass to Craner, senior Jake Taisey took it in from the one. Willard’s pass to Galan Holdahl in the left corner of the end zone was good for a 36-28 lead.
And then it was Hall’s turn to get into the act. The Hawks went immediately to their air. After an incompletion on their first play, they faced a second-and-goal, but never got off another pass.
St. Maries snuffed Lakeland with two consecutive sacks and a pressure that caused Reese into a desperation throw that was knocked down by Lumberjack defensive back Caleb Krebs.
Hall had the second sack and was pressuring Reese on the last play.
With the loss, Lakeland falls to 2-2 in the IML and 2-5 overall.
St. Maries 36, Lakeland 28
St. Maries 6 8 6 8 -36
Lakeland 0 14 0 14 -28
S-Taisey 4 run ( run failed) L-Reese 1 run ( kick failed) L-Larsen 65 pass from Reese ( Reese run) S-Craner 15 pass from Willard ( Craner pass from Willard) S-Holdahl 18 pass from Willard ( kick failed) L-Moore 26 pass from Reese ( Reese kick) S-Hall 1 run ( Willard run) L-Bertsch 20 run ( Reese kick) S-Taisey 1 run ( Hall pass from Willard)
, DataTimes