Beloit Memorial gets back into win column on homecoming

BELOIT — Beloit Memorial’s football team wasn’t claiming it played a perfect game Friday night.

It was far from it. There were dropped passes, missed blocks and tackles, wrong routes and well, a bunch of penalties.

Adversity galore, you might say.

The difference in this game was that the Purple Knights didn’t let anything sway them. They shook off every bad break on their way to a 42-7 homecoming victory over Westosha Central at Jacobson Field.

“We told our players going into the game that you’re going to fail at times, but it’s how you handle the next play,” Beloit head coach Brad Dement said. “They had some grit and some heart and they played for each other. They were able to stay positive throughout the game. Hopefully, they finally got the point. I’m glad we got a win and now we can build on that.”

Senior Mike Nora, who was homecoming king as well as a starting linebacker, said he noticed a difference in his teammates.

“Throughout the year we hadn’t handled adversity too well,” Nora said. “Before the game I prayed that we would stay together tonight. I didn’t hear us argue one time during the game. Our team camaraderie tonight. That was a big help.”

“We had a lot of guys play both ways,” Dement said. “We talked about adversity and we faced it going into the game with some guys missing. We knew we’d have to have some guys step up and play both ways.They came together and played a great game.”

The Knights scored on their opening possession as quarterback Braylen Huebbe connected with Brannon Hatchett for 35 yards and James Ford III capped it off with a TD from a yard out. Noah Fry booted the first of his six extra points. Ford rushed 18 times for 193 yards.

As a team, Beloit rushed 34 times for 273 yards and Huebbe passed for 155 more as he connected on 8-of-14 throws.

But the game wasn’t perfect. Clinging to their 7-0 lead, the Knights centered the ball over their punter’s head to give the Falcons the football at the Beloit 25. Then they were flagged for an illegal use of hands to give WC a first down at the 15. Four plays later they had only moved the ball four yards.

The Falcons were able to tie the game in the second quarter when Daniel Fox connected with Jim Hack on a 40-yard TD pass, but that was the extent of their points.

“The defense played very well,” Dement said. “We really stuffed their run and made them one-dimensional. We put them into some long yardage situations where they were forced to throw.”

The Knights responded by taking the ensuing kickoff and driving 80 yards, with the last 50 yards coming on the final play of the half Huebbe throwing a bomb to Jatavion Crawford that he caught in traffic and raced into the end zone.

“Up front, our offensive line gave us a lot of protection,” Huebbe said. “It’s a good thing to have two running backs like James and Brannon doing well and then we had Jay (Crawford) catching some long passes. He did a great job.”

Nora said Crawford’s catch to end the half further ignited the Knights.

“It was electric,” he said. “We made too many mental mistakes in the first half, but that play put us ahead. We had such a level of energy and focus in the locker room at halftime that I hadn’t seen all year. I knew we were going to take over the game.”

The Knights defense forced a punt to open the third quarter and on their first play, Ford took it to the house for 39 yards. Fry’s PAT made it 21-7.

The defense delivered again late in the third quarter, with Nora knocking down a fourth-down pass to give the offense the ball at the WC 49. Hatchett did some of the heavy lifting on the Knights’ drive and Ford capped it with a 4-yard TD run. Fry made it 28-7 with 6:31 left in the fourth quarter.

It snowballed — for WC –as it failed on another fourth-down play at the Beloit 47 and three plays later Ford scampered 41 yards for his third TD and with Fry’s PAT a 35-7 lead.

The Knights weren’t done. Two plays after the kickoff, sophomore Denaro Murphy picked off a pass and returned it 40 yards for a pick-six and the 42-7 final.

Hatchett had seven runs for 38 yards and two catches for 60 yards, plus was disruptive all night from his defensive end position. Crawford caught four passes for 88 yards.

Source: Beloit Daily News