Nighthawks to face Reardan to start 'classic' slate at Roos

A now-veteran Tekoa/Oakesdale/ Rosalia grid corps will be seeing red when it opens its season Saturday morning in the WIAA Kickoff Classic on the red turf of Eastern Washington University’s Roos Field.

“We are definitely stoked. There’s gonna be a lot of hype around this game,” said TOR Coach Kaleb Madison, entering his second year. “It’s on the red carpet. That brings a lot of hype. And it’s at 10 a.m. Saturday like college ball, so there’s an extra helping of hype right there.”

Coach Madison said his squad brings back a lot of talent and experience from the bruising run it put up in his rookie campaign, bringing a philosophy of “play hard, play smart, play fast” to the field.

“We’re definitely gonna be an experienced team this year,” he said. “These guys have put forth a lot of good effort and a lot of hard work. And now they’re going to earn the rewards of that.”

Leading the charge is junior tailback Craig Nelson who was the spark of the Nighthawks’ offense as a sophomore last year, gaining almost 1,500 total yards of offense and scoring 21 touchdowns.

In the air, the ‘hawks will look for the Maley connection to spread the game out with Quarterback Ryan Maley and Steven Maley running patterns out of the slot.

“Those two Maley boys should do some real big things for us this year,” said Coach Madison.

The ‘hawks will look to use their speed to run past Reardan in Saturday morning’s opener.

The Indians enter Coach Eric Nikkola’s ninth season with their typical power squad and their smashmouth running game that has racked up a 56-16 record under Nikkola’s reign.

“They just come out and run it at you between the tackles. That’s their style,” said Coach Madison. “But we’re definitely gonna strap it up, lock and load and explode and hope to run them off their game.”

The Nighthawks are surging after several down years in the SE 2B against perennial power like DeSales, Asotin and Waitsburg-Prescott, the defending state champion in the 2B division.

Coach Madison said his team gained key experience as underclassmen last year and has added on that with a summer of hard work. In addition to a team summer camp, the ‘hawks took part in EWU’s summer football camp, learning tips from the national champion Eagle coaches and facing off against larger schools from across the state.

The Nighthawks will play at Liberty next week in a non-leaguer with a district seven school and then travel to Tri-Cities to start the SE league schedule.

After a run of five league games, the ‘hawks will finish out the season against two A foes, Mabton and the Lakeside Eagles.

“That’s the level of competition I want these kids to get a feel for, to get a taste of,” the coach said.