Hampton tough

“Biggest win in 20 years!”
While the last four years since coach Jereme Jones arrived have been quite the improvement, the Hawks have had plenty of struggles on the football field since its last playoff victory in 2009. 
Friday night in Hampton had all the feelings of a game in early November and this Hawks team has all the looks of one that will still be alive in the next two months. 
The Hawks, for the first time in a generation, took a punch from a higher ranked opponent and not only punched back, but delivered a knockout blow, downing Pawnee City 27-24 and ending a 22-game regular season win streak the Indians sported. 
Coach Jones beat himself up the last couple years because he didn’t prepare his team enough in that aspect. 
“Every year, I don’t play physical enough in practice and I regret it at the end of the year,” Jones said. “This year, we tackled 30 minutes a day on Tuesday and Wednesday, even though we have guys beat up. I just want it ingrained with these guys that we’re going to be physical.”
It wasn’t the first play of the game, but it was the first possession where Hampton’s Kyler Luebbe delivered a cleat-untying shot that could be heard down at the Loading Chute. 
Message received, guy. 
Pawnee City’s offensive scheme wasn’t difficult to understand and wasn’t much different than what the Indians tried to do a year ago when Hampton was boatraced 59-6. Run the football. 
Last season, Pawnee City rushed for 354 yards against Hampton, pulled the starters by halftime. This year? Just 161 yards on 39 carries. Four Hampton players had 15 total tackles. 
Still, Hampton won’t be the biggest team to take the field. What this Hawk team does have that most of those past teams did not is swagger, a desire to stick its nose in there and be the aggressor. 
“In the past when we played a bigger team our guys would shy away a bit,” Jones said. “Tonight, we had a look in our eyes. Like, it was a street fight and we were ready to fight. I hadn’t seen that in Hampton before.”
Take the Rojewski brothers, Kyler and Landen. There’s nothing imposing about what they look like. There isn’t a better pure tackler in Hamilton County right now than Kyler Rojewski. The guy was in literally every scrum Friday night and most of the time, was the first one there. Landen may have some competition with Aurora’s Canon Allen on pure talent and ability, but No. 15 in purple just makes every play. He catches every ball. Returns kicks for touchdowns. Heck, even he had double-digit tackles. 
This Hampton team is worth watching and with everything riding on this season, it being the Final Flight and last year of Hawk football before the co-op with Heartland next fall, it feels special. 
A potential home playoff game in waiting a month from now? Yes please. A playoff win that would erase a gap back to even my high school days? You betcha. 
“With the final flight and everything what this means for the community and team to play like this, getting a win over a top four team is just outstanding,” Jones said. “It couldn’t be any better.”
Hopefully the wins this season just keep getting bigger until the saying is, “biggest win since the 70s!”
RICHARD RHODEN can be reached at sports@hamilton.net.