The Manawa Wolves varsity football team finally played a home game, Friday, Sept. 14, at the new Manawa Activity Complex. Despite the pregame excitement, the final outcome wasn’t what the Wolves were looking for as they fell to the Amherst Falcons by a score of 27-6.
Manawa received the opening kickoff only to turn the ball over on downs near midfield. Amherst took advantage on their first offensive play when Chris Zblewski hooked up with Caleb Glennon for a 49 yard touchdown pass. With the extra point, Amherst took a 7-0 lead, and held that lead through the first quarter.
Amherst’s first possession in the second half saw them convert a fourth down and seven yards to go. Two plays later Connor Zblewski scored the first of his three touchdowns in the game.
Manawa’s offense continued to be shut down for the rest of the first half. The half ended with Amherst holding a 14-0 lead.
The scoring continued for Amherst in the second half. During their first possession they converted a fourth down and two yards to go from the 13 yard line to put the ball just shy of the goal line. Connor Zblewski scored a touchdown on the next play. The point after was blocked by Manawa. This kept the score at 20-0.
Connor Zblewski caught a touchdown pass with 11 minutes left in the game to put Amherst up 27-0.
Manawa couldn’t get anything going offensively as they were held to 108 yards rushing on 46 attempts. Logan Hass led the way with 68 yards on 23 attempts. Donny Sell completed only three of nine passes for 69 yards.
With 1:29 left in the game, Manawa turned the ball over on downs, and Amherst proceeded to down the ball. After Manawa used up their timeouts to stop the clock, Amherst was forced to punt. Sell proceeded to complete a long pass to Alex Murphy. Garrett Griffin later scored a rushing touchdown with 26 seconds left in the game, to make the final score 27-6.