Hockinson defense grinds up Prairie in shutout

BATTLE GROUND — Eight quarters into the season, and these two things are clear.

Hockinson’s defense is quite stout.

Prairie’s offense is still a work in progress.

The Hawks dominated Friday night’s non-league encounter between the teams at District Stadium, holding the Falcons to 64 yards of total offense in a 41-0 rout.

A week after holding La Center to just a field goal, the Hawks (2-0), ranked No. 9 in 2A, kept Prairie out of the end zone and gave up just two first downs — none in the first half.

“Our game plan was to play physical the whole game,” said Hockinson’s Joe Davis, a senior linebacker who had three tackles for loss in the first half. “We accomplished that, from play one to the last play of the game.”

That first play saw Davis blasting into the Prairie backfield and yanking the ball from the grasp of running back Justin Pena, setting Hockinson up at the Falcons 18-yard line.

Austen Johnson cashed in Davis’ big play with one of his own, an 18-yard rumble up the gut to put Hockinson on the board just 25 seconds in.

“From that first play, our linemen were on fire,” said Johnson, who finished with 117 yards on 18 carries and also had four catches for 67 yards. “Our trap play all night couldn’t have gone better. All I had to do was just run behind them.”

Tommy Harshaw added a game-high 122 yards on the ground, including a 58-yard TD run, and also caught a 35-yard TD pass for the Hawks, who racked up 331 of their 492 yards on the ground.

“Our offensive linemen are loving blocking for our running backs, and our running backs are loving them opening big holes for them,” said Hawks coach Rick Steele. “We were just physical on both sides of the ball tonight.”

The Falcons, meanwhile, continued their offensive struggles after being shut out by Heritage a week ago. They didn’t cross midfield until late in the first half, when Kyle Schulson’s 57-yard kickoff return gave them the ball at the Hockinson 26.

Two plays later, Quentin Sills made a leaping interception in the end zone to squelch Prairie’s only serious scoring threat.

“We’re a young offensive team, but we’re growing each week,” said Prairie coach Terry Hyde. “I know it doesn’t look like it, when you go eight quarters and don’t score, but our offense is developing. We’re making strides.”

Hockinson 41, Prairie 0

Hockinson 12 8 8 13—41

Prairie 0 0 0 0 —0

First Quarter

H — Austen Johnson 18 run (kick failed)

H — Kedrick Johnson 10 pass from Mitch Lines (pass failed)

Second Quarter

H — Tommy Harshaw 35 pass from Lines (A.Johnson run)

Third Quarter

H — Joe Davis 6 run (Harshaw run)

Fourth Quarter

H — Harshaw 58 run (Quentin Bodenhamer kick)

H — Steven Carlisle (kick blocked)

Individual statistics

RUSHING—H, A.Johnson 18-117, Harshaw 12-122, Davis 5-45, Carlisle 3-14, Jacob Pearrow 3-14, Kevin Kirschenbaum 3-18, Lines 2-0, Devan Riggs 1-2, team 1-(minus 1). P, Denzel Hamiel 8-(minus 1), Justin Pena 6-5, Jordan Marti 3-8, Alec Gawley 1-5, Hunter Cofer 1-4, Reuvim Ponomarenko 1-(minus 4).

PASSING—H, Lines 11-14-0-161. P, Hamiel 5-9-1-47, Kevin Aguirre 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING—H, A.Johnson 4-69, Pearrow 2-38, K.Johnson 2-10, Cameron Loos 1-9, Harshaw 1-35, Cole Walker 1-0. P, Gawley 3-36, Kyle Schulson 2-11.