Hinderman to Fiesen pays off three times but Panthers lose to Hornets

Iowa-Grant scored three touchdowns in a 40-20 loss to Wauzeka-Steuben Friday with all of them some of the same.

All three Panther scores came through the air and included the arm of Brock Hinderman and the hands of Landon Friesen. The scores came on tosses of 64, 3 and 36 yards.  They came in quarters one, three and four.

Hinderman finished with 280 passing yards, hitting 20 of 30 tries.  He was intercepted twice.

Friesen had eight grabs for 175 yards as Hinderman’s main target.

Also catching passes for the Panthers were Cole Schauff, five for 40 Ty Cutts three for 20, Jonah Wetter two for 27 with Sam Lundell and Hayden Aultman hauling in one for 13 and five yards.

Schauff was the leading ball carrier with 10 carries for 31 yards.  Aultman gained eight on three tries.

The Hornets scored the first 14 points of the game on a one yard run and a returned fumble.  After the first Hinderman to Friesen TD they added two more, returning the kickoff 60 yards and a one yard plunge.

After the second score W/S scored twice again on a pair of runs, two and six yards.

Iowa-Grant coach Hayden Link felt the Hornets had a very solid game plan.

They were very disciplined to what we were doing,” Link said. “They did their film work. We have to continue doing more internal work. While Wauzeka-Steuben played their butts off, I don't believe we did everything we could do up front. We spent Saturday figuring out why exactly that was and we will spend the week fixing those problems.” 

There were some high points for the Panthers, Link felt.

“We did string together a couple of big drives,” Link pointed out. “We needed more turnovers, but big kudos to W/S as they were not letting that happen. Landon Friesen and Brock Hinderman continue to have a special connection and we have benefited from that.” 

Link and his staff know they have some things to help the Panthers with.

“We need to work on ball distribution a little bit or teams like Pec-Argyle will key in on Friesen.” Link said. “We also have to get our run game going. I thought Cole Schauff and our offensive line did a good job. The tape backs me up. Unfortunately, because of how this game flowed, we weren't able to pound the rock quite as much as we had planned. We are a good but not yet great running team. Up front, we have to stop teams from gashing us. We have to be more disciplined. That falls on me and the coaching staff to fix.”

Next up is Pecatonica/Argyle, a team coming off its first win and like the Panthers, passing minded. 

“They ran something like 90 plays and hung 50 points last week,” said Link.  “Anytime you can do that to a Six Rivers team, that is a concern. I believe wholeheartedly that the Six Rivers is the best top-to-bottom conference in the small school ranks. So we will need to be really focused on one play at a time, from here on out. Any team can challenge for this conference at any time. Pec-Argyle is no different.”