Hornets sting Red Devils

NOXON – The White Sulphur Springs Hornets made the long trip to Noxon pay off with a 33-18 road win over the Red Devils in the West End Friday in Western C 6-Man football action.

With both teams playing only their second games of the season five weeks into what normally would be the middle of the season, the Hornets had the goods to get by the determined home boys from Noxon.

"It was strange having a game of this magnitude, this late in the season, when it seemed kind of like an early season game," Noxon coach Bart Haflich said. "White Sulphur is a good, solid team but I feel like we gave them too much. Our blocking could have been better, and there are several calls I made that I wish I could get back.

"We just want to get back on the field," he added, "and get the taste of this loss out of our mouths."

Now 1-1 and with a 6-Man playoff berth still very much on their minds, the Devils travel to Victor for a rare Friday afternoon with Valley Christian. Christian is 1-2 after a 43-2 win over Gardiner in Victor Saturday.

"We only have two games left and we have to win them both if we hope to make the playoffs," Haflich said. "We have to go to work this week."

The Devils worked hard in the game with White Sulphur, but the Hornets made the plays they needed to win.

Noxon started strong on defense, holding the Hornets on downs and taking over at their own 37-yard line. Several plays later, Red Devil senior Josh Baldwin sprinted around right end for the game's first touchdown. After the points-after kick failed, the Devils led 6-0.

White Sulphur Springs promptly answered that drive when Sam Davis threw a 37-yard scoring strike to Caden West with 4:41 left in the first quarter. After Baldwin blocked the extra-points kick, the game was tied 6-6.

Early in the second quarter, after a facemask penalty kept the drive alive, Devil fullback Cade VanVleet bulled 20 yards for another touchdown and the kick was no good to make the score 12-6 Noxon.

Again, White Sulphur answered, this time with Davis hitting Alex Novark with a 20 yard pass for a key gain and then finding Andrew Davis with a 47-yard touchdown pass to make the score 12-12.

The Hornets had a chance to extend the lead right before halftime but the Noxon defense held on their own goal line and the game went into halftime tied at 12-12.

"I thought that may have given us a mental boost, a little momentum going into the second half," Haflich offered, "but it didn't turn out that way."

With 6:23 left in the third quarter, Sam Davis threw a 10-yard scoring pass to West and Andrew Davis booted the 2-point conversion kick to put the Hornets up 20-12. Early in the fourth quarter, Sam Davis found Novark with a 55-yard touchdown pass to increase the advantage to 26-12.

Another Davis to Novark scoring pass of 13 yards, followed by a conversion pass to lineman Kaden Kerr made the score 33-12.

Quarterback Derreck Christensen scored on a 12-yard run for Noxon in the closing minutes for the final scoring in the game.

Haflich knows what the Devils need to do in the next few weeks (Noxon also plays at Hot Springs in two weeks, although details of that game were still being worked out) if they hope to make the playoffs.

"We need to get better at the little things," he said. "It really hurt not getting to play much up to this point, in some ways it seems like it is still early in the season.

"But we have got to go to work starting right now if we hope to keep playing later on."