The South Hamilton Hawks and Roland-Story Norsemen football team returned to action on Friday night, as the two rivals met for the 52nd time in non-district action at Bill Taylor Field in Jewell. South Hamilton entered at 0-2. while Roland-Story entered at 1-1 and ranked #8 in Class 2A.
Friday’s game would stir emotions before the game with the honoring of South Hamilton 2024 graduate Owen Renaud, with both sides dawning white in honor of the former football and basketball star for the Hawks, with members of the 2023 senior players carrying his jersey onto the field during the pregame coin toss.
From there, Roland-Story imposed their will on the game from the get out, as the Norsemen marched the field on their opening drive and capped it off with a quarterback sneak from Sam Knoll to put the Norsemen up 7-0. After a South Hamilton punt, the Norsemen would again drive the field, the drive capped off by a Ben Mazyck 13-yard touchdown run to put the Norsemen up 14-0. Roland-Story would go to their bag of flash on the ensuing offensive drive, as Sam Knoll flipped an underhand pass to Hesston McIlrath who took it to the near pylon for a 9-yard touchdown pass to put the Norsemen up 21-0. South Hamilton punted on their ensuing possession, and McIllrath used the punt as an opportunity to turn it in to points with a 52-yard punt return for a touchdown to make it 28-0 Norsemen. The Norsemen would add one more touchdown off a Ben Mazyck run to put Roland-Story up 35-0 at halftime.
Roland-Story picked up where they left off in the 3rd quarter with a heavy dose of running the football, as Ben Mazyck scored his 3rd touchdown of the night on a short run to put the Norsemen up 42-0. Backups would take over from there as Roland-Story put up 2 more touchdowns in garbage time to punctuate their 56-0 win over the Hawks.
Roland-Story’s Player of the Game was sophomore running back Ben Mazyck, who had 112 yards and 3 touchdowns on 13 carries. South Hamilton’s Player of the Game was senior quarterback and defensive back Braden Young, who went 2-for-4 with 40 yards throwing the football, and had an interception on defense.
Roland-Story returns to action on Friday when they travel to Carroll to take on Kuemper Catholic in a crucial 2A, District 8 opener at 7:30 PM at the Carroll Athletic Stadium. South Hamilton opens 1A, District 7 action on Friday when they host West Central Valley at 7 PM at Bill Taylor Field in Jewell.