Kee football team opens 2025 season with strong first quarter on the way to a 52-29 home victory over Tripoli
Determined drive ... Kee football senior lineman Zach Meyer drives this Tripoli opponent backward in the Hawks’ 52-29 season-opening win at home over the Panthers Friday, August 29. While opening up running lanes and providing pass protection to help account for 364 yards of total offense, Meyer also hunted down a team-best pair of quarterback sacks in his total of two solo tackles and seven assisted stops. Photo by Danielle Potter. View and find out how to purchase this photo and many more by clicking on the Photo Galleries link on this webpage.
The Kee football team got its 2025 season off to a strong start, both in the opening quarter of its season-opening home game with Tripoli Friday, August 29 and eventually overall with a 52-29 triumph over the visiting Panthers. That opening quarter saw the grid Hawks erupt to a 30-0 headstart just 10 minutes into the contest before getting much more of a challenge from their Tripoli visitors for the game’s remainder but ultimately handling the task to start their fall campaign on a winning note.
“We came out and played extremely good football in the first quarter,” Kee football head coach Chad Winters said. “We just can’t take our foot off the gas in those situations. We had a couple opportunities to get the 35-point clock rolling but couldn’t get it done. Credit to Tripoli as they found some footing after that first quarter and made us work. A lot of new guys were playing big-time snaps for us where in the past it had been in a reserve role or sometimes on just one side of the ball. We did some really good things along the way, but we definitely need to fix some of our mistakes that we made as the game went on.”
Kee held just a 364-308 advantage in total offense in the ballgame, showing some early equity on the offensive side of the ball with 200 yards and four touchdowns through the air while adding another 164 yards and three tallies on the ground. While holding Tripoli to just 48 yards passing in the ballgame, Kee’s defense surrendered 260 yards on the ground, including 229 of those to Panther senior Logan Heim, who averaged 9.5 yards per carry in Friday’s match-up. The Hawks also came away with a 3-0 advantage in turnovers, getting two of those right away in that first quarter of play that they were able to capitalize on to help build their 30-0 early advantage.
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