Despite trailing for most of the game, the Berkshire Badgers’ football team was still hanging around late against Chagrin Valley Conference rival Hawken. But several bad plays late doomed Berkshire, resulting in a 34-7 loss against their Geauga County rival the Hawks last Thursday evening at Great Lakes Cheese Stadium.
“We came out and battled but to be honest with you we need to clean up in those critical moments,” said Coach Josh DeWeese. “We saw some adversity on Thursday night and made some mistakes in these moments so we need to do better as we move forward.”
It marked the first time that the former CVC Valley Division rivals faced off since Hawken moved to the CVC Chagrin Division last year. The last time the teams played each other, the Hawks snapped a two-year losing streak.
After enjoying a lot of success against Hawken as former CVC Valley Division foes, Berkshire (1-1, 0-0) has some catching up to as the Hawks are a more formidable team.
“We’ve battled with Hawken for years so it was nice to play them again,” said the 12-year coach. “As they are growing, Coach Mark Iammarino’s staff is doing a great job and they have some dudes over there and they have a good football team. They are going to impress some people this year in the CVC Chagrin Division.”
The Badgers’ offense struggled in the first half but their defense made several big plays, limiting Hawken to seven points until the final play of the half when tailback Jordan Johnson shook off several tackles and scored on a 73-yard touchdown run, pushing Hawken’s lead to 14-0.
Despite surrendering a touchdown on the final play before the half, Berkshire came alive at the beginning of the third period, engineering an 11-play, 76-yard drive that cumulated in a one-yard touchdown run by sophomore tailback/defensive back Oliver Miller.
According to DeWeese, it was a welcome sight to see his team fight back.
“The team came out doing exactly what the plan was out of halftime which was get back to what we do, run the ball hard and move them up front and move the ball down the field,” noted DeWeese.
Berkshire continued swinging the momentum in its favor when the 5-foot-7 Miller intercepted Hawken junior quarterback Donovan Moorhead at Berkshire’s 30.
The Badgers’ rally was derailed by several poor snaps, which backed them up into their own end zone on fourth-and-long. Hawken’s defensive line caved in Berkshire’s front, blocking the punt attempt and sophomore tailback/quarterback/linebacker Mitch Greenberg recovered the ball for a touchdown, propelling Hawken ahead 20-7 after the Badgers blocked the extra point attempt.
Things went from bad to worse for Berkshire when they failed to respond on the ensuing possession and the 5-foot-9 Johnson remained elusive, scoring on a 62-yard touchdown run to push the Hawks’ lead to 27-7 in the fourth quarter. Hawken delivered the dagger when junior tailback/linebacker Kene Obi intercepted junior quarterback Sam Barcikoski and returned the ball into the end zone for a 40-yard interception touchdown return, extending Hawken’s advantage to 34-7.
Prior to Obi’s interception, the Badgers had been winning the turnover battle by a 3-0 margin, forcing two Hawken turnovers in the red zone in addition to Miller’s interception in the third quarter, but they failed to capitalize on any of their turnovers while the Hawks needed only one play to make Berkshire pay.
Despite remaining in striking distance for most of the game, it only took a few bad plays for the game to slip away completely from Berkshire’s grasp.
“They are things we can definitely clean up,” noted DeWeese. “We have played better in the past and in the moment we need to play better. We will get back to it and get ready for Friday night.”
Hawken’s defense stifled the Badgers’ passing game as the 6-foot Barcikoski completed six of eight passes for only 54 yards and while Berkshire’s rushing attack recorded 143 yards, there were not many explosive runs.
“Hawken did a good job defensively,” said DeWeese. “They took away a lot of stuff we wanted to do in the passing game. They were in spots and ran really good coverage. I tip my hat to them. They played a really clean game and did not make many mistakes and our mistakes compounded the score.”
The Badgers will play another CVC crossover game when they hit the road to face Conneaut at Ricaurte Stadium’s Joslin Field in Conneaut this Friday at 7 p.m.
