NEW SHARON – “I feel a Warhawk win tonight.” North Mahaska football coach Trey Bennett repeated that statement prior to Friday’s senior night game against the North Tama Redhawks. With no playoff game on the line but an opportunity to post the school’s best record since 2009, a pair of seniors stepped up to make it happen. Gage Ries rambled for 86 yards and a touchdown and Joel DeJong forced a late game fumble and recovered to end a Redhawk scoring threat. The result: North Mahaska 12, North Tama 8.
“These guys deserve this,” said Bennett as his team rang the victory bell. “Our defense stepped up. That touchdown doesn’t happen without that.”
Entering the contest North Mahaska was facing another two-prong attack quarterback in Kolt Knaack. He can run and pass, but North Mahaska’s defense limited Knaack to 53 yards on 23 carries and only 56 total yards on the ground. The Warhawks had more players in his backfield than Knaack and limited him to 81 yards through the air.
North Mahaska scored two minutes into the second quarter on Ries’s 15-yard run. The extra point failed but the Warhawks held the lead to halftime.
North Tama took the second half ball and moved 72 yards in 12 plays to score and add the 2-point conversion to flip the score to 8-6. NM quarterback Ryan Groom engineered a 54-yard drive and scored from the 3-yard line. The 2-point attempt failed for what would be the final score.
A 20-yard field goal attempt came up short for the Warhawks and gave North Tama the ball at their own 20-yard line with just over 3 minutes to play. Knaack moved the Redhawks to the NM 49-yard line. Enter DeJong who forced the fumble and dropped on it to end the threat. The Warhawks were able to run the clock out and secure the team’s 4-4 mark, the best since 2009 when the Warhawks went 8-1.
“Gage was a force on both sides of the ball tonight,” said Bennett. “Our defense stepped up and didn’t give them a chance.”
Ries said the team had a mission.
“We came in as a team that should have been in the playoffs and we wanted to show what we could do,” said Reis. “It was not just me tonight. I wouldn’t have those yards if those guys weren’t blocking for me up front. It was them that did it.”
North Mahaska rushed for 181 yards and 114 through the air. Charlie Goemaat added 61 yards on 10 carries to Ries’s 86. Groom had 33 on nine carries with a touchdown. Groom was 9-for-14 passing for 114 yards and two interceptions.
Ries had seven tackles and a fumble recovery while DeJong had six tackles and a fumble recovery. Trenton Hol and Alex Meland each had five tackles. Lucas Nunnikhoven and Chance Angle each had a solo sack.
North Mahaska finished the season 4-4 overall and 2-4 in district play. They placed fifth in the district. Six teams on North Mahaska’s schedule are heading to the playoffs. Two of those teams were defeated by the Warhawks, Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont and North Tama. EBF enters the postseason with a 2-6 mark wile North Tama is 4-4.
