Through two games, the Shawano Community High School football team has yet to find the end zone and has been on the losing end of two ugly scores.
But first-year coach Al Tomow said his team continues to play hard, even if it doesn’t show on the scoreboard.
“I’m proud of my team, that they don’t quit. That they play hard for each other and for our staff,” Tomow said. “We knew what we signed up for. We knew it was going to be a tough go at first, but it’s awesome to see kids buying into our philosophy and the fact that they don’t quit and they play hard all the way through.”
The end of Shawano’s 42-0 loss to nonconference foe Mosinee on Friday night is a good example.
After Mosinee (2-0, 0-0 Great Northern) racked up 42 points — ending its first six drives of the game with a touchdowns, the Hawks’ defense held Mosinee on fourth-and-nine near the Shawano end zone with 3:28 left in the game.
Shawano quarterback Cole Huntington then found Bryce Richards for a 36-yard pass play. Huntington and Richards connected twice more, driving the Hawks to the Mosinee 35-yard line before Huntington was picked off by Landon Stepan in the end zone.
“Cole’s a strong leader, he just has to trust his reads,” Tomow said. “He’s a first-year starting quarterback. We expected the growing pains.”
While the Hawks (0-2, 0-1 Bay Conference) didn’t come away with any points, they also were not playing like a team that has been outscored 94-0 in the first two games of the season.
“We have to do a better job when we have success and handling adversity,” Tomow said. “We have to understand that the ebb and flow of a football game is, you’re going to have highs and lows. We’ll have to do a better job of dealing with the negative plays.”
Huntington went five of 18 for 87 yards and two interceptions. He also rushed four times for -3 yards. Richards caught three balls for 65 yards. Running back Brice Bergner carried the ball eight times for 11 yards.
Mosinee racked up 303 yards, 119 by running back Chris Tomski, who scored twice. Mosinee quarterback Zach Pyan went 12 of 16 for 142 yards and three touchdowns. His favorite target was Jeremy Weinberg, who caught four passes for 71 yards and a touchdown.
Shawano went into the game missing several players due to injury and suffered a few more in the game, including a leg injury to Skyler Hokenstad, who was taken off the field in an ambulance.
“We had a lot of injuries and we had a couple go down here tonight. That’s not a good thing for our football team, but we’re getting some guys back who are out for injuries and I expect us to be closer to full strength. … We’ll be ready to play New London next week.”
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