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Hawks turn turnovers into points, pick up 1st win

WOODWARD – Grant Evans was dominant up front defensively and Charlie Reiter owned the secondary for the South Hamilton football team here Friday night.

Their performances couldn’t have come at a better time.

The turnovers battle went South Hamilton’s way and so did the game, as the Hawks tasted success for the first time with a 23-6 victory over Class 1A District 7 rival Woodward Academy.

It’s been a long season for the Hawks, there’s no denying that, and that’s why Friday’s celebration was all the more memorable.

“It’s big for the kids, and I think it speaks volumes of the character that they have,” South Hamilton head coach Corey Klemp said. “We’ve kind of gone through the gauntlet this year, but they practiced all last week with an awesome attitude. So to see them celebrate in the locker room was pretty special.”

Evans, sophomore defensive tackle, overpowered his counterparts on the Knights’ offensive line. He finished with five tackles, a fumble recovery, and he pushed a Woodward Academy player into his own punter that led to a free ball that he was able to pluck out of the air in the end zone for a fourth-quarter touchdown.

“What Grant Evans had for tackles doesn’t even come close to measuring his effort,” Klemp said. “He just brought it every single play.

“Defensively we played really well. We stayed with our keys and tackled a lot better, and we also brought a lot more pressure.”

Reiter, a senior cornerback, collected his first interception of the season in the first quarter to set up South Hamilton’s go-ahead score, and he added two more later in the contest.

Reiter also made a pair of tackles.

“It was so awesome to see Charlie have the night he had,” Klemp said. “He’s really grown a ton, not only in his pass coverage, but also in the way he came up in run support.”

Reiter’s initial pick set South Hamilton (1-5, 1-4) up inside the Woodward Academy 20-yard line and a few plays later Logan Klemp bulled his way in from the 1.

The Hawks maintained a 7-0 lead until late in the second quarter when Colton Coy drilled a 35-yard field goal to make it 10-0 at the break. A bad snap on a punt attempt by the Knights put South Hamilton in position to add the three points.

Logan Klemp’s second touchdown jaunt, this time from 4 yards with 10:16 remaining in regulation, was set up by another Reiter interception.

Woodward Academy (1-6, 0-5) closed the deficit to 16-6 just 12 seconds later on an 86-yard kickoff return to the house by Davar Anderson. But it was as close as the Knights would get.

Evans’ highlight-reel special teams play on the punt put the game away with 7:05 remaining.

South Hamilton finished with 218 yards of offense, all of it coming on the ground. The defense limited Woodward Academy to just two first downs.

Logan Klemp, a sophomore fullback, was again the workhorse. He lugged the ball on 38 of South Hamilton’s 59 offensive plays and churned out 165 yards. It was his third 100-yard game of the campaign and pushed his season total to 635 yards.

Jake Hand provided a little change of pace and the senior wingback accumulated 30 yards on eight carries. Luke Peters added 18 yards on six totes.

Logan Klemp piled up a team-high eight tackles as well. Hand and Brian Greenfield both finished with four.

South Hamilton will travel to Lake City later this week to tangle with district leader South Central Calhoun (6-1, 4-0) at 7 p.m. The Titans have won six consecutive games after they dropped their season opener to 3A Greene County, 42-28. They throttled previously ranked Madrid, 35-6, on Friday.

“They’ve got the total package going,” Corey Klemp said of the Titans. “It will definitely be a huge challenge.”

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