The Woodland Beavers played the role of villain to the Hockinson Hawks crowd with a 34-31 dramatic win on the natural grass football field on Friday, Oct. 4.
The first quarter quickly highlighted the abilities of Beaver quarterback Elijah Andersen who started with a 60-yard touchdown run on fourth down. Andersen added another touchdown run before Hockinson’s Aiden Donowitz connected with Madsen Richardson to split the Beaver lead in half, 14-7.
The Hawks evened it up in the second quarter with the Donowitz and Richardson connection again. Woodland’s Josiah Graham then added a field goal before catching a red zone touchdown pass by Andersen to extend the halftime lead to 24-14.
After a parade of Corvettes on the track and the Hockinson High School marching band playing for the homecoming halftime entertainment, Hockinson’s Owen Donowitz made the score 24-17 with a field goal. Andersen scored his third touchdown by ground to close the third quarter out with a two touchdown, 31-17, lead.
The fourth quarter was almost all Hockinson with two touchdown passes by Aiden Donowitz, one to Zachary Chung and a third with Richardson.
Woodland’s Josiah Graham sealed the win for the Beavers with a 32-yard field goal. Hockinson drove down to field goal range but failed to spike the ball within 1.8 seconds, ending the game.
“I was happy,” Andersen said of watching Graham split the uprights with his field goal. “The coach asked me, ‘Do you want to kick it?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I trust him.’ You know, he’s the one who made the catch. I knew that he’s a dog and he’s a player. He’s made for that moment, and I put 100% trust in him, and he nailed it and I was happy. I was real happy.”
Andersen played well on both sides of the ball despite an apparent lingering injury. In his senior season, Andersen is determined to produce for his team, both on offense and defense.
“When you’re feeling the pain, you just have to think of the team. You know, you don’t want to go home with a loss,” Andersen said. “So if you’re going home, I’m going to be hurting at home, might as well hurt with a W.”
Woodland head coach Glen Flanagan said Andersen has risen to the occasion as a leader in his senior year.
“When you’re a freshman, sophomore, even junior, you kind of play just a game, but when you’re a senior, there’s a sense of urgency,” Flanagan said. “You have to have that leadership. You hope those kids step up. He’s done a great job, not just with his play, but with his decision-making, his toughness. He has that stinger that obviously bothered him. But, he went back in and drove us down the field.”
The Woodland Beavers and Ridgefield Spudders now sit alone as the two undefeated teams in the 2A Greater St. Helens League after R.A. Long High School of Longview lost to the Columbia River Rapids. At 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10, the Beavers will host R.A. Long High School to either extend the difference in the 2A GSHL or create a tie for second place with three weeks to play.
With R.A. Long looking to play the villain in the Woodland Beavers’ homecoming game, Flanagan is looking forward to the matchup as he hopes a win will add some clarity down the stretch in the 2A GSHL.
“R.A. Long has been playing well,” Flanagan said. “They killed Hockinson, so I don’t know what’s going on in this league, but teams are up and down. R.A. Long has some athletes. They have dudes, so we’re just going to have to heal up, you know, strap our pads on and go at them.”
The Hockinson Hawks, now 0-5, are seeing their hopeful bounceback season disappear. They next play at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10, at Columbia River High School.
