Alva Review-Courier -

HENNESSEY – The Alva High School football team had a strong start against Class 2A Hennessey Eagles on Friday night to begin district play.

The Goldbugs came swinging right out the gate as Davion Murrow returned the ball on the kick return for a 79-yard touchdown to give Alva the early momentum over Hennessey.

Things seemed to be going well for the Goldbugs in the first eight minutes of the game, but Hennessey was able to bounce back on their second possession of the night, after Mitchell Meyer was forced to roll out of the pocket to avoid the pressure, and threw the ball into the hands of Hennessey's Levi Childs. Starting from Alva's 29-yard line, Eagles' quarterback Braden Hunt found an open receiver along the right side of the field for a 26-yard gain to put Hennessey within striking distance. Despite the Eagles following that up with an illegal substitution and a quarterback sack from Alva's Ethan Harzman for a total loss of nine yards. Hennessey found the end zone on a 12-yard rushing touchdown with 2:39 left in the first. With the extra point attempt good, the Eagles trailed Alva by just one, 8-7.

That was the last time the Goldbugs held the lead over Hennessey as they answered with another touchdown on a 34-yard pass to Jalen Goff to put them up 8-14 after a 12-play 75-yard possession.

Unfortunately for Alva, during their last offensive possession, Meyer sat on the bench for the rest of the night after getting injured, putting Austin Shklar behind center – who has been battling injuries since the start of the season. Despite Shklar's tenacity as a player, he showed some rust in the QB position fumbling the ball on the second snap of the drive, giving the Eagles possession on Alva's 34.

Hennessey put up another seven after their starting running back sneaked up the middle for a 20-yard touchdown run to put the score at 8-21.

Alva was finally able to move their offense up the field as freshman, Dalton Hess ran straight up the middle for 31 yards to put the Goldbugs in Eagle territory, almost finding daylight but was brought down by a shoestring tackle. Despite that much-needed run, with 4:30 left to go in the half, Alva tried to go for it on a fourth-and-10 at the Hennessey's 40, but turned it over on downs after an incomplete pass.

The Eagles scored once more before the clock winded down for halftime off a 25-yard run to put the score at 8-28 over Alva.

With the third quarter going by scoreless, Alva's defense tried to shift momentum on a Hennessey possession at their one-yard line. Feeling the full force of the Goldbugs' pressure, Hunt tried to throw the ball up the middle, but Alva's Chase Jones was there to intercept the pass at the five-yard line and ran it straight in for Alva's second touchdown of the night. With the successful two-point conversion, Alva trailed 16-28 with 11:56 to go in the game.

Hennessey answered right back after a great kick return from Childs to put them on Alva's 32 and just three plays later, the Eagles were in the endzone with a another rushing touchdown to put the score at 16-35.

An un-sportsman like conduct and encroachment penalty from Hennessey helped the Alva's offense on their way to their first touchdown of the night as Shklar found Hayden Colwell for an 11-yard touchdown pass with 9:14 left on the clock. This put Alva within 13 points of Hennessey's lead as they trailed 22-35.

However, the Eagles were able to put up one more touchdown before the end of the night with the final score at 22-42 giving Alva their first loss of the season.

Stats

The Goldbugs had a total of 146 yards against Hennessey's 311 for the night. In the air, Alva was 10-for-25 for 82 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. The leading receiver of the night was Colwell with four catches for 31 yards and one touchdown followed by T.W. Beiswanger with two catches for 12 yards, Murrow with two catches for seven yards and Shklar with one catch of six yards.

In the rushing game, Hess led Alva with 58 yards off six carries, followed by Shklar with 13 yards off 10 carries, Meyer with three carries for one yard, and Murrow with negative yardage on five attempts.

Harzman and Jones were instrumental for Alva's defense, both putting up big plays during the night. Harzman had a big sack for a four-yard loss early in the game to try and keep Hennessey to just three points.

Jones had two tackles for a total loss of five yards, teaming up with Harzman on one of those, and a big interception that came deep in Hennessey territory for a pick-six to get Alva back into the game.

Up next, Alva has a week rest up as they face off with the Chisholm Longhorns (3-0) at home as the Horns will be coming off a big game against Hennessey on Sept. 30. Alva's game is scheduled to kickoff on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m.