The Medomak Valley football team succumbed to the strong defense and robust running game of the Hermon Hawks in a 24-14 loss in the Class C North regional championship on Saturday, Nov. 16 in Hampden. Gabe Lash had a stellar game for the Panthers after he switched to the quarterback position in the second half and sparked a comeback rally that ended up just a little bit short.
Powerful Hermon running back Max Hopkins scored all four of the Hawks touchdowns in the game, including a 19-yard dash with 8:17 to go in the first half, and a punishing six yard smash up the middle on fourth down that staked Hermon to a 12-0 lead with just four seconds left in the second quarter. After another long Hermon drive early in the second half, Hopkins hammered his way into the end zone with his third touchdown to boost the Hawks lead to 18-0 with just over six minutes left in the third quarter, before the Panthers stunned the Hawks by scoring a pair of touchdowns before the start of the final quarter.
Gabe Lash scored on a quarterback sneak from two yards out to make the score 18-6 with 3:20 left in the third. Lash had set up the touchdown with long runs during the drive of 17 and 47 yards. Porter Gahagan recovered a fumble on the ensuing Hermon possession to set up the next Panthers touchdown. Ruiz broke tackles in the backfield and bolted up the left sideline for a 27 yard touchdown run with 6 seconds remaining to narrow the Hermon advantage to 18-12. Lash ran the ball into the end zone for the two-point conversion and the score was 18-14 with a one quarter left to play.
The Hawks used up more than nine minutes of the clock on their next possession, culminating in the fourth touchdown run of the game for Hopkins that boosted the Hawks lead to 24-14.
“Even after getting down three scores, the guys battled and put us back in it,” said Panther head coach Ryan Snell. “The momentum started swinging our way but ultimately, we couldn’t get a stop on them and ran out of time.”
