Hawks closer to crown

The Hanover High Hawks didn't talk about defending their Central Region, Division 5 championship the past week.

That topic was off-limits - until now.

Second-seeded Hanover scored 10 points before its game with Monacan was four minutes old and went on to a 24-14 victory in the region semifinals in high school's version of Monday Night Football.

The Hawks (8-3) will play for the championship at top-seeded Dinwiddie (10-1) on Saturday at 1 p.m.

"Defending," by the way, is not the proper term.

"Our goal was to take the championship, not defend it," linebacker Kenny Fryman said.

Fryman said the Hawks focused all week on Monacan. It showed with an early blitz.

Hanover moved quickly downfield on its opening possession before the drive stalled at the Monacan 6-yard line. Rachel Moore's 23-yard field goal made it 3-0.

The Hawks squibbed the ensuing kickoff, and it bounced off one of Monacan's up men. Aaron Gary recovered it for Hanover at the Chiefs 37. A run and Josh Wells' 32-yard pass to Ross Scarborough set up Chris Lee's 2-yard TD run.

That made it 10-0 before Monacan (7-4) ever had the ball.

"They're just too good to give them a short field," Monacan coach Danny Parsons said. "We didn't play as well as we'd like."

Monacan, helped by two penalties, came back with J.C. Wiggins' 26-yard TD run to make it 10-7 late in the first quarter. Hanover responded with Wells' 25-yard TD pass to Deane Cheatham.

Mixing runs with passes, Hanover controlled the first half. The Hawks had 259 yards of offense. But penalties, dropped passes and a missed field goal kept the margin from being larger at halftime.

Wells, a 6-5, 225-pound senior, riddled the Chiefs' secondary in the first half, completing 9 of 16 passes for 144 yards. He did that despite twisting his left ankle and getting a lift in a golf cart to the locker room at halftime.

"It'll be fine by next week," he said.

Wells threw only four times in the second half. He finished 12 for 20 with 185 yards, two TDs and an interception.

"He's made great decisions and played great quarterback this last half of the season," Hanover coach Josh Just said. "I think he's one of the better quarterbacks in the region, if not the state."

Monacan made it close once again in the second half. The Chiefs used a 39-yard run from Wiggins (15 carries, 86 yards) on their opening possession to set up Logan Staib's 6-yard TD jump pass to Kevork Ozbalik.

As it did throughout the game, Hanover responded behind some tough runs by Fryman (44 yards). The Hawks made it 24-14 on Wells' 33-yard TD pass to Scarborough.

With Fryman leading the way, the Hawks' defense took over from there. Monacan had just 88 yards rushing and 51 passing. Hanover finished with 383 yards total.

"We can't wait to play Dinwiddie," Just said. "They're great, but we feel we're great, too."

Monacan ------------------------- 7 0 7 0 - 14
Hanover ------------------------- 10 7 7 0 - 24

Han - FG 23 Moore

Han - Lee 2 run (Moore kick)

Mon - Wiggins 26 run (Caras kick)

Han - Cheatham 25 pass from Wells (Moore kick)

Mon - Ozbalik 6 pass from Staib (Caras kick)

Han - Scarborough 33 pass from Wells (Moore kick)

Rushing

Monacan - Wiggins 15 carries, 86 yards, Boyd 2-4, Staib 8minus-2, Patterson 1minus-2, Jarvis 1-2; Hanover - Cheatham 10-72, Lee 13-54, Fryman 8-44, Wells 4-28.

Passing

Monacan - Staib 6 completions, 20 attempts, 51 yards, 1 TD, 1 interception; Hanover - Wells 12-20, 185 yards, 2 TDs, 1 int.

Receiving

Monacan - Wiggins 2 catches, 23 yards, Patterson 1-16, Ozbalik 1-6, Jarvis 1-5, Czaikowski 1-1; Hanover - Scarborough 2-65, Cheatham 3-52, Davis 3-45, Trsic 1-11, Yorke 2-6, Lee 1-6.