Both North Daviess and Washington competed in close games on Friday night, with only a late touchdown making a difference in both games. Washington beat Boonville, 20-13, while ND was defeated 12-7. This week, the Hatchets take on Pike Central and North Daviess hosts North Central.

Pike Central at Washington

A late touchdown from Will McCormick gave the Hatchets more than just a 20-13 win over Boonville. It gave them their first win over a team that has beaten them every year since 1993. The win dovetails with the change in attitude that coach Kelly Brashear has brought to a team that had its first winning season in more than a decade last year and added a signature win over Vincennes Lincoln as well.

“After we watched the film on Saturday, there were two things I wanted to leave the team with — be humble and remain hungry. I told them it was great win over Boonville, but if we get beat by Pike Central, it will really take the luster off it,” said Brashear.

The win also featured an 88-yard breakaway touchdown from Nick Williams. For the night Washington picked up just under 200 yards on the ground and quarterback Beau Parsons was 4-7 for 53 yards.

The Hatchet defense was led by Logan Hawthorne with 11 tackles, as they shut out Boonville in the second half.

This week the Hatchets look to go 2-0 with a win over Pike Central.

The Hatchets have beaten the Chargers every year since 2004, including a 28-14 win last year. If Washington can get the win, it would be the first time since 2000 they would have started the year 2-0.

“We know that we can and should win our next three games, but we will have to be ready to play. All of those teams scare me,” said Brashear.

Marty Deputy’s Chargers fell in their opener to a much-improved North Knox team, 33-7.

The Charger offense was led by Keith McGee with 53 yards, Scott Gillespie had 40 and quarterback Travis Frazier had a 40 -yard scramble. Pike’s other QB, Scott Webb, completed two passes for six yards and had one interception.

“The Frazier kid is tough out of play action. If it is not there, he is not afraid to tuck in and go,” said Brashear. “We know we have to take away the fullback McGee and force them up to go to the outside.

“Pike Central has gone to the wing-t and they are using a lot of misdirection stuff that we have to watch.”

The Hatchets will kickoff at 8 p.m. at Hatchet Hollow and the game can be heard on WAMW.

North Central at North Daviess

A late touchdown on a trick play was what Tecumseh needed to give the Cougars their first loss of the year on Friday.

ND fell 12-7 after a tight end pass led to a long gain and the eventual winning score.

“That was a difficult loss for everyone. It came down to two plays in the game. Other than that, we didn’t make any mistakes and I felt like we executed the game plan. We held a good running team to 28 yards,” said ND coach Scott Helms.

“There were plenty of positives that we will take out of that game.”

This week the Cougars face former ND product Brian Crabtree and the North Central Thunderbirds. Crabtree has picked up wins in each of the three seasons he has coached in Farmersburg. In fact, Crabtree posted a pair of 8-3 seasons the last two years and is 19-14 for his career, however, they did fall to Dugger, 48-8 last week.

“They are a well coached team,” added Helms. “They will really spread the field against us. The two areas that we will have to work on this week are pass rush and defending the pass.”

One thing that the Cougars will not have to worry about is the running of Michael Woodsmall. Woodsmall graduated with almost 5,000 career yards.

Helms said that his own running game was impressive last week, as Dalton Sellers had 82 yards on 20 carries and was involved with 20 tackles on just 28 defensive plays. Ryan Webster also played well, while Helms was also quick to point out the play of Casey Bell on the line.

“Casey had a career game for us,” said Helms. “We counted seven or eight ‘pancake’ blocks in that game.”

The Cougars will start at 7:30 p.m. this week and the CCYFL flag teams will play at halftime. The game can be heard on WRZR.