Troy Athens turns the tide, fights off Avondale
TROY » The host Troy Athens Red Hawks gutted out a 2113 win over the Auburn Hills Avondale Yellow Jackets Friday night.
Nate Hazen’s 31-yard pass to an open Grant Vende-Kerkhoff with 7:41 remaining in the game provided the final margin in a defensive slugfest. Trey Vincent ran in the two-point conversion to make the game 21- 6 at that point.
Avondale responded with a touchdown drive of its own, capped off by a 32-yard run by Garett Voeffray on the end around, cutting the Red Hawks’ lead to 21-13 with 5:16 left. But Avondale could get no closer, even after the Yellow Jacket defense forced a fumble to set up the offense on the Troy Athens 29-yard line with 3:21 left in the game.
But like they had done all game long, the Red Hawk defense rose to the challenge. Athens shut Avondale down on four straight downs. The front seven, led by seniors Colin Siterlet, Waides Ashman, Dylan
Hudson, and Aidan Ingram were a force all night, blowing up plays before from the start, but it was never more crucial than the Yellow Jackets’ final offensive play on fourth down and three fromthe Athens 22yard line.
“It was outstanding. Our defense has been really good all year,” Red Hawks head coach Billy Keenist said. “I’m very proud of the defense, very proud of the assistant coaches. We’ve lost two games by 13 points. It’s been a tough, tough start. But I’m very proud of this group of kids. They deserve this one.”
For the most part, both defenses dominated the game, and neither offense was able to sustain anything on offense. Led by a dominating performance from its defensive line, the Red Hawks held Avondale to just four first downs in the first half and only two pass completions in eight attempts.
Avondale’s senior-laden defense was also quite stout. Headed by Brian Keturakis and Jake Herzog, the Yellowjackets were chasing Hazen
around his backfield on a consistent basis. Athens only managed six first downs in the second half and really struggled to move the ball much of the night.
“We rotated about 15 or 16 guys, and I was really, really happy with them,” Avondale head coach Corey Bell said.
Athens, however, did put together back-to-back touchdown drives in the second quarter, both of which were capped by Trey Vincent touchdown runs, to build a 13-0 halftime lead.
“We started to go back to who we are as a program, and that’s a physical, run the ball team, and we had a little bit of success with that,” Keenist said. “Like I said, I’m just really proud of these kids. We had a great week of practice, and it showed tonight. When you work hard, and you believe, and you hang together good things happen.”
In the end, Vincent and Hazen combined to make just enough big plays for the Red Hawks offense, and the Athens defense made the 21 points stand up.
“We’ve just got to execute. That’s exactly what it was. They made one more play,” Bell said. “We really liked how we came out in the second half. We thought we were going to be able to mount a comeback and came up one play short.” He added that, “I was really, really proud of our guys, the way they fought, the way they stayed in there. We’ve just got to do it one more time, stay more consistent, and roll with the punches.”
The Red Hawks are now 1-2 on the season and host Berkley next week.
Avondale falls to 0- 3 on the season. The Yellow Jackets travel to Pontiac next week.