Hornets football wins close one over Pine River in season opener

By BEN MURPHY

Cleaver Sports Writer

Harrison was able to get its football season started in the right direction on Thursday. The Hornets were playing on the road at Pine River to kick off the year, and they were able to play well enough to get a 30-24 victory.

“Good opening win for us,” head coach Jamie Lipovsky said of the non-conference victory. “We lost one of our key players late in the first half. We are proud of how the other stepped up to secure the win.”

The Hornets scored all of their points on the ground and scored a touchdown late in the game to make it a two score margin and all but ice it. The Bucks did score a touchdown in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, but the Hornets hung on for the six-point win.

“Three senior linemen led the way with great blocking all night,” Lipovsky said. “Gavin Vanburen had five pancake blocks from his guard spots. Hunter Lafeve won 94-percent of his run blocks and Khelder Hathaway was rock solid at center helping our fullbacks run for over 230 yard in the center of the line.”

The Hornets were led by Aiden Brewer who ran 15 times for 176 yards and two touchdowns. Ray Cosgrove added 61 yards on 15 carries and Matt Latunski had two touchdowns on seven rushing attempts and 10 total yards and he also completed his only pass of the game, for 10 yards to Collin Dennis. Clayton Austin ran nine times for 43 yards and Dennis had 22 yards on seven touches.

As for the defense, Latunski and Clayton Austin both had seven tackles, Cosgrove and Brewer each chased down five tackles, Alex Jansen and Errol Masue had four each and with three tackles apiece was Nyxon Rhodes and Lafeve.

Harrison (1-0 overall) heads to White Cloud (0-1) on Friday. White Cloud lost to Shelby last week, 57-0. The Hornets won last year’s meeting between the two teams, with a score of 42-22.

“White Cloud lost week one, but they are a dangerous team with some very strong lineman,” Lipovsky said. “We will have to play a very controlled game, limit our mistakes and capitalize when given opportunities to score.”