Second-seeded Hermon High School battled through turnovers to escape its Class C North quarterfinal showdown against No. 7 Hampden Academy with a 16-0 victory in Hermon on Friday night.
After only mustering six points in the first half, Hermon changed the game plan in the third quarter.
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Hermon (6-3) ran the ball with Gary Glidden 11 times in a row to start the second half and finished the drive with a 12-yard touchdown run on a pitch to the right side. The score, accompanied with a two-point conversion run by Glidden, upped the Hawks’ lead to 14-0 quickly.
“I pretty much questioned the boys at halftime about which guys want to take the game over,” Hermon coach Kyle Gallant said. “Gary has all year. I love all the kids and everyone plays really well, but sometimes some of the kids sputter and Gary doesn’t sputter. We needed to get out of that funk and who else to give it to than the guy that’s run 1,200 yards all year for you.”
Hermon then forced a punt and got the ball back.
Glidden ran four more times in a row before quarterback Johnny Kokoska threw his second interception of the game, this one to Hampden’s Andrew Cote.
Pivotal play: Hampden (2-7) started with possession at its own 2-yard line, but the first play of the drive was driven back into the end zone by a hoard of Hermon defenders for a safety. The safety gave the Hawks a 16-0 lead with 24 seconds left in the third quarter.
On Hermon’s next drive, the Hawks moved the ball consistently down the field until Kokska threw his third interception of the game and second to Hampden’s Aiden Kochendoerfer.
While Hermon got the win, Gallant said there is a lot to work to be done this week for the Hawks.
“Controlling the football and getting out of here with an ugly win was good, but you can’t play like that in a quarterfinal and I will take that as a head coach,” Gallant said. “I’ve got a lot of work to put in the guys to get them ready for the semifinals.”
Hampden’s possession only lasted a few plays before Hampden QB Nick Johnston threw a pick to Gavin Coombs with more than six minutes left in the game.
Big takeaway: Hermon defeated Hampden 59-12 during the regular season, so Hampden coach Andrew Logan was pleased with his team’s effort on Friday.
“From the last time we played them we had four guys healthy and back, this is really the second game we’ve played with our whole team,” Logan said. “We made a lot of adjustments on defense, prepared for them and I thought we did a hell of a job on defense. To go from 60 points to 16 points is great.”
Hampden blocked a punt by Hermon and got the ball in the red zone with 4:25 left in the game, but Glidden sacked Johnston and Hermon forced a turnover on downs before running out the clock.
In the first half, Glidden totalled 67 yards of offense, including a 9-yard touchdown run on Hermon’s opening drive of the game. The extra point missed, so with 8:43 left in the first quarter the Hawks held a 6-0 lead.
Glidden finished with 178 total yards of offense.
While the Broncos’ season is over, Logan is excited for the future of the Hampden football program.
“Our seniors are phenomenal,” Logan said. “Just an incredible group of kids. They’ve been around for a lot of losses and they’ve stuck around. We graduate 11 kids this year and that’s a lot for a group that lost eight games each of the last two years and won two this year. To do that in the quarterfinal is just phenomenal.”
Up next: Hermon will play No. 3 Oceanside (6-3) next Friday at home in the Class C North semifinals.
