Young has big game as Eagles roll past Hawks for first-round playoff win
Oct. 28—HARPERSFIELD TOWNSHIP — As long as the Geneva football team has been waiting for the postseason, quarterback Kenny Young was just waiting for an opportunity like he had Friday night.
After 10 weeks of mostly handing the ball off the Eagles trios of talented backs, Young was turned loose for Geneva's opening round playoff game against Hawken.
The results were more than worth waiting for as the Eagles routed the Hawks 56-19 for a Division III, Region 9 first-round win at Spire Academy.
Young completed 7 of 9 pass attempts for 145 yards and two touchdowns. He also had a pair of rushing touchdowns.
Geneva will now take on Chardon next Friday, also at Spire.
For Young, the chance to show off his arm talent was what he's been waiting for this season.
"Coach told us yesterday that during practice that we would be throwing the ball," the senior said. "Even if we got up by a lot, we were still going to be throwing the rock and that's what we did tonight."
For a team that has primarily relied on playing smash-mouth football, the Eagles air attack looked pretty well polished.
Up 14-0, Young went to work connecting with Giavonni Rice on a 37-yard touchdown pass. One possession later, Young hit Luke Smith for another 35 yards to set up a score.
Then, following a blocked punt by Mathew Van Sickle, Young dialed up Smith again, this time from 35 yards out to make it 35-0 early in the second quarter.
"Coach [Don Shymske] has a lot of faith in us to be able to throw the ball around and get first downs and into the end zone," Young said.
Shymske said it was not only a fun change of pace for the offense, but it also served notice to upcoming opponents that they will have to worry about a lot more than the run game when they face them.
"We wanted to make sure that people knew what we're capable of," Shymske said. "We like to run the ball, we'll do that as much as we can, but we know that there's times that we have to open it up and throw it and we have guys here that are capable of doing it. I think we've just done a good job of masking it this year."
Smith was the leading receiver with four catches for 100 yards, including the score. Of course, Geneva still ran the ball also. Bryce Peet led the ground attack with 84 yards, including a score. Hayden Diemer had also had a touchdown to go with 70 yards on the ground. Smith and Luke Barbo also had rushing touchdowns.
Defensively, the Eagles allowed Hawks quarterback Donovan Moorhead to connect with Jordan Johnson on a 66-yard catch and run play for the Hawks only score of the first half. Moorhead finished with 257 passing yards, but did not get his team into the endzone again until late in the game with the issue long settled.
It's the second year in a row that Geneva has won a postseason game. A year ago they defeated Gilmour Academy 49-48.
Shymske said this year, breathing a little easier was something he did not mind. But that win last year really set the tone for this season.
"That Gilmour win a year ago was kind of a springboard into this season," the coach said. "It's been a special season and we want to keep it going. We have a daunting task next week but it's gonna be a fun week, get to be with the guys another week."
Chardon, ended the Eagles season a year ago with a 35-7 win.
"We have some redemption on our mind," Young said. "We have them at home, and we have an advantage here."
