South O'Brien scored 22 unanswered points to edge Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn 22-21 on Friday night in Hartley. The Hawks got on the board first. A 65 yard run by Brett Waechter set up a 1 yard touchdown for Jordan Japenga and H-M-S led 7-0 after the extra point. The Wolverines would get a good punt return and drive it to the H-M-S goaline before fumbling in the end zone. The Hawks responded by starting the second quarter with a 61 yard touchdown pass to Blake Simons to go up 14-0. Following an interception by Brian Perez, the Hawks scored again, this time a 7 yard touchdown pass to David Van Dyke with 7:34 to go in the half to go up 21-0 after the extra point. The Wolverines then got their offense rolling. Damon Struve capped off a 13 play drive with a 14 yard touchdown run to get SOS back in the game before halftime at 21-7. SOS started the second half off with a 14 play drive, burning six minutes of clock, and scoring off a 1 yard touchdown run by Struve to make the score 21-14. They would not take the lead though until 4:18 left in the fourth quarter. Once again it was Struve, scoring this time from 8 yards out. The Wolverines opted to go for two on the extra point, and again it was Struve giving SOS the lead 22-21.

 

Struve finished the game with 198 yards on 34 carries and three touchdowns. The Wolverines as a team racked up 243 yards on the ground. Struve and Keaton Rohrbaugh each had interceptions for SOS on defense. The Wolverines are 1-1 and open district play against LeMars Gehlen next week. Japenga threw for 213 yards for H-M-S with 142 of those yards going to Simons. Perez and Todd Helmers each recovered a fumble for H-M-S, who falls to 0-2 on the season. They host Western Christian in their home opener next week.