Sports
Sioux sprint past Cougars in homecoming victory
Tyler Ohmann
09/18/2012
Strong line play allowed the Westhope-Newburg-Glenburn Sioux to run past the North Prairie Cougars 48-14 on homecoming in Westhope last Friday night.
Fellow senior Kodie Hancock paced the Sioux ground game, rushing for 202 yards and three scores in the game.
“It was awesome. It felt great,”Hancock said. “The team worked hard. The linemen blocked really, really good. We couldn’t have done it without the linemen.”
Hancock scored on the Sioux’s opening drive to put them up 6-0.
Junior quarterback Hunter Braaten scored on a sneak later in the quarter to give the Sioux a 12-0 lead.
Hancock broke free again later in the first for a 54-yard scamper to allow the Sioux to take a 20-0 lead after the first quarter.
“We got a good push, mixed it up a bit, and I felt like the kids wanted it,” said Sioux head coach Tom Nesvold. “Our offense and defensive lines did a tremendous job tonight.”
The Sioux scored twice more in the first half as Calder Solloway hauled in a 37-yard strike from Braaten and fullback Karlie Hancock punched one in from five yards to put the Sioux up 34-0.
The Cougars would answer before the half was over though on a Sean Soukup two-yard run. After a conversion the Sioux led 34-8 at halftime.
Kodie Hancock scored for the third time in the third quarter as the Sioux continued the blowout. Kodie was quick to give the credit to his blockers.
“It felt great,” Kodie said. “I couldn’t have done it without the fullback and the linemen, the whole team.”
Solloway scored for the second time on the night later in the third quarter, and the Sioux completed a 48-14 blasting of the Cougars.
Nesvold was happy the Sioux (2-3 overall, 2-1 in Region 2) could finish strong with a win.
“We played three pretty good teams right off the jump, and even with Hatton, they came back on us, we didn’t finish that one,” Nesvold said. “Here we wanted to finish, it didn’t matter if there were young kids in, we wanted to finish.”
Nesvold was happy to see some emotion and celebration on the field after big plays.
“We’re playing as a team out there, and we’re having fun,” Nesvold said. “The first part of the season we weren’t having fun. When we score we’re celebrating, we’re emotional, we aren’t just going through the motions.”
“I saw a lot of ‘want to’ tonight,” Nesvold continued. “In the first game and even some in the second game, we didn’t have the ‘want to,’ but now we kind of have everybody clicking.”
“They are starting to understand that you just can’t say it. You’ve got to go out and do it, and have fun doing it,” Nesvold added.
However, the Sioux have no time for rest as they travel to take on a tough Harvey-Wells County squad next week. The defending region champs, the Hornets are coming off of a 20-18 win over Hatton-Northwood.
“Harvey is Harvey, they are going to be tougher than snot,” Nesvold said. “We need to come out with this kind of effort next Friday night.”
Kodie Hancock thinks the team will need to keep up their mental game in order to run with the Hornets next week in hostile territory.
“We have Harvey next week, and they are a good team. Hopefully we can get it done,” Kodie said. “We just need to stay mentally focused, don’t give anything up, work hard and work hard as a team.”
With some shuffling in the lineup due to injury, Nesvold feels it will be key to get comfortable and not commit penalties.
“Hold your water, so you don’t have to jump around and get five-yard penalties,” Nesvold said. “They are all kind of jittery (tonight).”
The win began and ended with strong line play, and the Sioux hope to continue that as the season grinds on.