Sports

Anyone who saw the first 30 seconds of the Kee football team’s Friday, September 25 road game at North Iowa in Buffalo Center would likely not have guessed it would go down to the final 30 seconds before being decided in the Hawks’ favor. North Iowa fans may still not believe it.

“Wow! That was quite the high school football game,” Kee football coach Chad Winters said. “It wasn’t the cleanest played game, but the fans sure got their money’s worth. We couldn’t have had a worse start than we did. We were down 12-0 just 23 seconds into the game after two big plays by them and a turnover by us. To the boys’ credit, they battled back.”

Indians’ game this Friday canceled due to continued COVID-19 concerns at Independence

For most teams, opening a game with 10 plays and finding the end zone would be considered a pretty good opening possession. But for the Waukon football team, after running just 10 plays of offense in their Friday, September 18 Homecoming game against Oelwein, they had already built a 50-0 advantage over the visiting Huskies.

Coming off its first loss of the 2020 football season, the Kee football team was looking to get back on track when the Hawks traveled to Central City Friday, September 18. Facing a Wildcat team that has yet to win a game and has been outscored by a 219-14 result, including a pair of scoreless losses to this season’s Eight-Player District 3 top-10 ranked leaders, the Hawks continued that trend with a 30-0 road triumph.

As convincing as that Hawk win seemed to be, it did take some time to develop. The two teams slugged out just a 6-0 Kee halftime lead, but Hawk football coach Chad Winters said some changes made at the game’s midpoint break proved to be effective, as the Hawks put together a 24-0 outscoring of the host Wildcats to pull away to their shut-out victory.

The Kee girls and boys cross country teams competed in their busiest week of the season this past week, participating in a pair of invitational meets. The Hawks first took part in the Starmont Invitational Tuesday, September 15 after adding it to their schedule following two other meet cancellations earlier in the season. The Kee distance crew then ran at the Central Elkader Invitational Thursday, September 17. The Lady Hawks brought home an eighth-place finish at Starmont and finished fourth at the Central Elkader Invitational, with the Kee boys not having enough runners to compile a team score at either meet.

The Hawks were next scheduled to compete at the Waukon Invitational Tuesday, September 22. They will then take part in the Jesup Invitational Tuesday, September 29.

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The Waukon volleyball team’s first venture into Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play also resulted in its first loss of the season, as the Indian netters fell to Decorah at home Tuesday, September 8 in straight sets by scores of 17-25, 13-25 and 18-25. The Indians managed 17 kills in the match but gave away nearly a full match worth of points with their 21 hitting errors while the visiting Vikings pounded away for more than a match worth of points at the net with 28 kills.

In a match-up of two undefeated teams that had both racked up some pretty good point totals in their first two games of the season, only one of those was able to continue that trend when the Kee football team hosted Easton Valley Friday, September 11. The host Hawks were able to pretty much stand toe-to-toe with the State Play-Off qualifying River Hawks from last season, but allowed Easton Valley 34 unanswered points in the game’s second quarter that fueled the 54-14 Kee defeat.

The Waukon football team got its Class 2A District 4 season underway in successful fashion Friday, September 11 when it traveled to New Hampton for a battle between squads each holding a 1-1 season record. Although rainy, windy weather conditions limited each team to a slow start to each half, the Indians were able to overcome both the weather conditions and the host Chickasaws’ defensive effort to find scoreboard success through the air on the way to a 34-14 victory.

“Coach (Jed) Hemann always has the passing figured into our attack, and our kids are getting a bit more in sync each week,” Waukon football coach Chad Beermann said. “It never rained too hard, and the wind did not really impact the conditions much. New Hampton has a good defensive line, and they gave us some problems initially. You usually come in with a philosophy of how you want to attack a team, but that often has to be changed up a bit after you see the way they play in person.”

Any concerns about the Waukon football team following their season-opening loss to Decorah were pretty much laid to rest when the Indians opened their home season in convincing fashion against another Class 3A opponent from their same Northeast Iowa Conference Friday, September 4. After falling in their season opener at Class 3A Decorah by a 19-18 margin that didn’t see them score until the game’s final six minutes, and facing a Waverly-Shell Rock team that had amassed 300 yards on the ground in a 49-13 season-opening win a week earlier over the Tribe’s Class 2A District 4 colleague Crestwood, the Indians calmed the fears of their faithful by scoring on their first two possessions and six of their first seven series of the ballgame to roll to a 45-10 home triumph over the visiting Go-Hawks.

The Waukon volleyball team got its home schedule underway with a lone competition date this past week, and did so with a double-dose of victory on the same night Monday, August 31. The Indian netters remained undefeated so far this young season - both in set and match play, as they swept both Riceville - 25-22, 25-19 and 25-10 - and Kee - 25-11, 25-21 and 25-12 - in that home triangular in three sets each.

“That was a nice way to start off the week and begin our home games; with back to back wins!” Waukon volleyball coach Rachell Adney commented. “I saw several great connections; however, we did struggle with some defensive plays, but we all have to remember that picking that ball up with a good pass every time isn’t always that easy.”

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The Kee football team opened its 2020 home schedule in nearly the same way it opened its season overall, dominating another fellow Upper Iowa Conference squad in Eight-Player District 3 play Friday, September 4 on the way to a 55-14 win over West Central. The Hawks scored on their first five possessions of the ballgame to bolt to a 40-6 halftime lead and scored on seven of their eight possessions overall before kneeling out their ninth and final series to end the game.

“It was a great way to celebrate Senior Night,” Kee football coach Chad Winters said. “The three seniors (linemen Mat Gruber, Clayton Little and Hunter McKee) really helped set the tone for the night with their physical play. We were able to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.”

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