It didn’t take long for the Shawano football team to get a win on its new field, as the Hawks handed Lakeland a 16-15 defeat in a nonconference matchup Aug. 28 at the Shawano Stadium.
The home opener at Shawano Community High School’s new athletic field ended on a positive note for the Hawks, as they scored 10 unanswered points off of a pair of turnovers in the fourth quarter.
Shawano trailed until Austin Heling’s 40-yard field goal in the final minute of the game turned a 15-13 deficit into a 16-15 lead.
Marcus Brezgel scored Shawano’s first touchdown on a short run and Tristan Lawe later scored on a touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
“We felt like we owed the community something,” coach Alan Tomow said. “We said at halftime, ‘You guys made a commitment and they deserve your best. They funded this for us, they built this for us.’ We want to play for them. We felt we owe the community something.”
The Hawks overcame mistakes in the first half, but took advantage of Lakeland’s turnovers down the stretch, Tomow said.
“We felt that we gifted a couple things,” he said. “We got caught on a bad snap, lost our coverage and they scored before halftime. The kids came out in the second half and we were moving the ball. It was just a couple of tweaks that we needed to do to spring some of our runs.”
The Hawks were able to take advantage of Heling’s kicking skills when it mattered, according to Tomow.
The ball bounced off a crossbar, but the kick was good.
“Never a doubt,” Tomow said. When we settled across the 30-yard line, we were all in on Austin kicking a field goal if we need to. He and I talked about this opportunity for a long time to kick a field goal to win a game,” he said. “It’s a weapon that we haven’t had in a long time. He said this senior group has never tasted the playoffs yet. It meant something to him.”
The Hawks will open Bay Conference play at 7 p.m. Sept. 4 by hosting Winneconne, last year’s WIAA Division 2 state champion. The Wolves are 2-0 and are coming off of a 42-0 win over Omro. The Hawks are 1-1.
“We have a long way to go, but we made some big strides tonight,” Tomow said. “The kids are excited. We’ve got a tough team coming in next week, but they’re going to enjoy this one. They earned every bit of it.”
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