Hermantown football coach Mike Zagelmeyer acknowledged that last Friday's 28-21 home loss against North Branch, the Hawks' first loss of the season in three starts, was a difficult pill to swallow, "especially when you know what they are going to do offensively and are unsuccessful in stopping it."
"Give credit to North Branch, they are very good at what they do offensively, but we have to be better in some areas -- especially outside the tackle box," Zagelmeyer said afterwards. "They had 329 yards on the ground and 0 yards passing, which kind of told the story of the game. We needed to get their offense off the field and we didn't do it -- whether it was penalties or missed tackles or other technique mistakes."
North Branch improved to 2-1 overall, 2-0 in the Northeast Red, and the Hawks slipped to 2-1 and 2-1.
"I thought we did some nice things offensively again this week, especially in the passing game where Alex (Schott) went 19-24 for 211 yards with a couple of TDs," said Zagelmeyer. "However, we need to be able to have more success on the ground where we only gained 50 yards -- and I am not sure when a Hermantown team has done that in the past. So we will try and make sure we are much better there this week."
The Hawks will play host to Grand Rapids (2-1, 1-1) at 7 p.m. Friday at beautiful Centricity Stadium. The Thunderhawks defeated visiting Rock Ridge 27-6 last Friday night.
"Things will not get any easier for us (versus Grand Rapids)," said Zagelmeyer. "We have always had some great games with Rapids over the years and I would expect nothing different this year. I am excited to see how we respond after such a disappointing loss, and I believe this team has it in them to be really successful moving forward and bounce back after Friday night."
NORTHEAST RED GAMES FRIDAY
Grand Rapids (2-1, 1-1) at Hermantown (2-1, 1-1)
Mora (0-3) at North Branch (2-1, 2-0)
Duluth Denfeld (3-0, 1-0) at Duluth East (1-2, 0-1)
Rock Ridge (1-2, 0-2) at Cloquet (1-2, 1-1)
HAWKS REMAINING REGULAR SEASON GAMES
Friday -- home vs. Grand Rapids
Sept. 29 -- at Rock Ridge
Oct. 6 -- at Duluth East
Oct. 13 -- home vs. Esko
Oct. 18 -- home vs. Denfeld
Hawks Notebook -- Schott rushed for a team-high 31 yards against North Branch, in 10 attempts, for a 27 yards ... Wide Receiver Peyton Menzel had seven receptions for 97 yards, and running back River Freeman had a pair of receptions for 54 yards (27 yards per catch average).