Reardan squeaks past Nighthawks in overtime

Ill-timed penalties and near misses cost the Nighthawks of Tekoa, Oakesdale and Rosalia their second win of the season Friday. Visiting Reardan eked out a 15-7 overtime win at Oakesdale Friday.

“Those are the games you like to play in, you like to coach in and you like to be a part of,” said TOR Coach Ken Lindgren. “You just prefer to come out on top.”

The Nighthawk defense stopped the Indians’ one year short of paydirt on their opening drive. Reardan had a first and goal at the two but the Nighthawk D stepped up and stuffed two Indian attempts to punch it in up the middle. They then nailed two big tackles in the Reardan backfield and forced a pair of delay penalties that pushed the drive back to the 21-yard line. The Indians could not collect. .

“Our kids really stepped it up there. I was real impressed with our gang tackling,” Lindgren said.

Reardan notched their first score at the end of the opening quarter, when QB Chase Bell found an outside opening and scampered 33 yards for six.

Lindgren said Bell was tough to control, but credited defensive ends Brandon Hovde and Scott Eberle for containing the outside corners.

The ‘hawks answered back with a long drive that ended in a Zach St. John touchdown from the one to knot the game at 7-up.

From there it was a combination of tough defense and missed opportunities.

Reardan had a touchdown run called back because of a holding penalty in the third. In the fourth, the Nighthawks connected on a long pass that would have put the ball in the red zone, but the play was called back because TOR did not have enough players on the line of scrimmage.

Regulation play ended in a 7-7 knot.

“Those are the penalties you absolutely hate,” said Lindgren. “You can forgive aggressive penalties, but we can’t afford to make those mental mistakes.”

The Indians took the ball to open the extra frame and almost stalled drive on a fourth-and-goal from the six. TOR defenders stuffed the play, but caught a hold of Bell’s facemask for a penalty that extended the drive. Niko Knezovich then punched in the ball for the deciding score.

The ‘hawks overtime hopes ended with a second-and-goal procedure penalty that was followed by a third down interception in the end zone.

TOR next hosts a DeSales team that fell 33-14 to Colfax last Friday. Lindgren said his team matches up well against this year’s Irish squad, which should lead to a closer game than last year’s 75-6 pasting at Walla Walla.