Football: Dow freshmen beat Arthur Hill 33-0; Midland High on deck

by Jason Wolverton

Dow High forced six turnovers on defense and Eric Schwenk led the offensive charge with three touchdowns Wednesday as the freshman Chargers shut out visiting Arthur Hill 33-0.

The win was a workmanlike performance for the Chargers as they improved to 6-1 on the season with their third shutout at home this year. Dow has outscored its opponents 102-14 on its own turf this season.

“We didn’t know anything about Arthur Hill, we didn’t know if they won any games, we didn’t know if they lost any games,” said coach Jason Watkins. “We came out, we executed, and we took care of business.”

On parent’s night at the Dow High Football field the Chargers gave all the moms and dads fighting the rain and cold a lot to cheer about in the first half. After forcing the Lumberjacks to go three-and-out on their opening series, the Chargers got the ball on their own 25 and methodically marched down the field and opened the scoring when Schwenk ran right up the middle from five yards out. Mitchell Ballard added the extra point to make it 7-0.

The Chargers got the ball back on the ensuing kickoff when Ballard sent a squib kick toward the sidelines and the Lumberjacks were unable to field it cleanly. Though the Chargers were unable to score on the possession, they played the field-position game by turning it over on downs at Arthur Hill’s 5. That gave the offense a short field to work with when the Chargers’ defense promptly forced a punt that gave Dow the ball back on the Lumberjacks’ 28 with 32 seconds to go in the first.

The Chargers marched towards the end zone again and were bailed out by the Arthur Hill defensive line when a hard-count forced the Lumberjacks offsides on fourth-and-two. That gave the Chargers a first down on the opposition’s 2 and Schwenk ran it in from there with 8:18 to go in the second. The PAT was no good as Dow led 13-0.

It was the defense’s turn to shine on Arthur Hill’s next possession as Garrett Kidd made his first of two interceptions on the night and got the ball back for the Chargers on the Arthur Hill 25. And on the very next play, Tom Skoczylas took the handoff around the right edge and sprinted down the sideline for a 75-yard touchdown run to make it 19-0. Ballard connected on the extra point.

The defense got into the act again a few minutes later when Jake Riepma stuffed a fake punt on fourth-and-16 to give the Chargers’ the ball back at midfield. That set up Dow’s fourth touchdown of the half when Daniel Stephens connected with Alex Moore on a 3-yard touchdown pass with 34 seconds to go. The extra point was no good as Dow held a 26-0 lead at the break.

“The defense played great,” Watkins said. “There were a lot of guys flying to the football. It took us a little while to adjust to their speed, but that’s a lesson that you learn in freshman football in the Valley. Quite a few of the teams are faster than you are.”

The Chargers were able to put it in cruise control for most of the second half after Schwenk added a touchdown on the opening drive of the third quarter and Ballard hit the extra point to make it 33-0. From there, Watkins was able to play many of his reserves and the defense forced four more turnovers as Dow secured the win.

The Chargers now turn their attention towards Wednesday’s rivalry game at undefeated Midland High, a matchup that could prove to be the most evenly matched of next week’s three cross-town rival football games.

“[The coaches] do a really outstanding job of preparing those kids to play over there at Midland High and they’ve been doing that for years,” Watkins said. “To me, that’s something that we want to emulate. Clearly the kids from the city of Midland are capable of beating the rest of the freshman teams in the Valley, and I think we’ve shown that this year with one loss between us going into the last game. I’m excited about it. I look forward to playing teams that are well coached and well disciplined.”

But while much of the post-game attention was on the Midland High game, Watkins also wanted to give credit to the parents for all of their work in helping the Chargers get to where they are this season.

“We talked all week long about having a great effort for our parents and dedicated that effort to the moms and dads and all those people who make sacrifices,” he said. “We give a special thank you to those families for all the time and energy that they put in behind the scenes in supporting these boys and sharing their boys with us. It’s just great. We have tremendous parental support and we appreciate that.”

For more photos from Wednesday’s game click on “Photo Slideshow” in the top right corner of this article.

Photos by Jason Wolverton & Cory Butzin