Hawks wrap up elusive playoff berth

Greenfield - When a football team is going after its first WIAA playoff berth in nearly a decade, it doesn't want to leave anything to chance.

Greenfield routed New Berlin West, 49-7, in the Woodland Conference finale on Friday night at home to improve to 5-3 in the Black Division (5-4 overall) and automatically earned a berth into this year's playoff field.

If the Hustlin' Hawks had lost, they would have finished 4-4 in the conference and still had a shot at the playoffs, but the victory guaranteed them the school's first postseason spot since 2002.

"Our goal was first to qualify for the playoffs, but then you want to guarantee that you are in the playoffs," coach Scott Otto said.

The Hawks learned on Tuesday that they would be playing at Waterford (6-1 in the Southern Lakes Conference, 8-1 overall) as part of the 32-team Division 2 field in the opening round. At press time, the game was tentatively set for 7 p.m. on Friday.

Waterford finished in a three-way tie with Wilmot and Lake Geneva Badger atop the Southern Lakes standings. Waterford is ranked seventh in the latest Associated Press state poll and its only defeat was a 14-10 loss to Wilmot on Sept. 2.

While the teams are in different conferences, the Hawks and the Wolverines do have a common opponent: Brown Deer. Waterford crushed the Falcons, 52-13, in its season opener. Greenfield, meanwhile, lost to Brown Deer, 35-34, in a game that the Hawks led by 21 late in the third quarter. But that was in the team's third game of the season.

Waterford is also a playoff-team veteran, while the Hawks, who finished tied for third in the Woodland-Black Division, are entering new territory.

So after seven consecutive losing seasons, how did this resurgence happen?

The Hawks rebounded in their second game of the season with a victory over traditional power Pewaukee after a flat performance in a season-opening loss to Waukesha North. It proved to be a big win, as the Pirates have not lost since then.

Greenfield's season could have then unraveled after that Brown Deer loss the next week, but again they rallied and downed eventual playoff team South Milwaukee, 24-7, then outlasted rival Whitnall, 39-34.

"Our finish in the conference was the highest in years, and we had some quality wins," Otto said.

Otto, who had earlier turned around the West Allis Hale program, said there are several reasons for the Hawks' rebirth this year.

"We (the coaches) have to believe in the kids," he said, "and you have to have the kids believe that they can win. They need to trust in the coaching staff, and in turn, the coaching staff trusts in the kids. It took hard work in the off-season, and we came into this year with high expectations."

Their winning formula was simple - a powerful and varied running game to control the ball, backed by a stout defense.

Both elements were on display on Friday against New Berlin West. The Hawks racked up 431 yards on the ground, led by Andy Lucas with 206 on just nine carries, an average of 22.9 per attempt. He also scored on runs of 49, 53 and 70 yards, and what's more, he accomplished all that in just over a half of play, as the starters were in for just one series in the second half.

Lucas, who has been a big part of Greenfield's success this season, was not even a running back coming into the year. He played defensive lineman on the junior varsity in 2010 but asked Otto in August if he could be a running back.

Against West, Chad Karges added 86 yards rushing on five carries (17.2 average), with a 74-yard touchdown; quarterback Tyler Laverdure 80 on five attempts (16.0), with scores of 57 and 11 yards; and Bathong Pham 47 on seven tries (6.7), with a 10-yard touchdown.

As a team, the Hawks averaged almost 15 yards per carry for the night.

"You have to decide how to play our running game," Otto said. "West played many guys up at the line, but when you do that, you don't have many guys at the second level. Once we got beyond the line, there weren't many people back there and we had big plays."

The Greenfield defense, meanwhile, allowed the Vikings no offensive scores. The only touchdown came in the fourth quarter on a fumble recovery.

"We've been giving up just six points on the average in the first half," Otto said. "The defense has played some nice games, but we need to play the full four quarters, and they did that (on Friday)."

THE ROAD BACK

Here are Greenfield's football records for the past five seasons:

2010: 3-6

2009: 0-9

2008: 4-5

2007: 1-8

2006: 2-7