The Union Knights faced off against the Decorah Vikings Aug. 26th in the 2011 season Friday night opener. The Knights ended up taking the game with a score of 20-17.

*all credit to Waterloo Courier for this information and covering our game

LA PORTE CITY, Iowa --- It's no secret that 9-0 2010 season followed by a first-round exit in the state playoffs has lit a fire under Union Community's football team.

With their backs to the wall in Friday's home opener, the Knights showed just how well-conditioned and resilient they've become. Union overcame a 17-6 deficit with just under 4 minutes remaining in the third quarter to defeat Decorah, 20-17, in a battle of teams that finished atop their respective Class 3A districts a year ago.

"Every team I've played on, we've been resilient, we come back," Union junior quarterback Trev Hadachek said. "We knew we were still in this game. Deep down, through all the workouts and all the summer activities, we want to get back to where we were - a district championship. We knew we could come back, and eventually our stuff started clicking. We got going."

Throughout much of Friday night's contest, Decorah was in firm control. The Vikings held the state's top returning rusher, Wes Burnside, to 32 yards on 12 carries in the opening half.

When Burnside did break a 79-yard run early in the third quarter, that drive ended with Union's nemesis, Jacob Humpal, leading a brigade of Decorah defenders who met the Knights' star in the backfield for a goal-line stand. Hadachek was being treated on the sideline during that play with cramping in both calves.

A 45-yard pass from Blake Moen to Kyle Kregel that gave Decorah an 11-point lead came on the ensuing Vikings' drive.

Union, however, never backed down. Hadachek re-entered the game, and the Knights' answered Decorah's score with one of their own. Hadachek rushed for 11 yards and hit Hunter Zempel on an 8-yard pass before Burnside set up a 5-yard TD run with a 7-yard scamper. The two-point conversion on a pass from Hadachek to Will Crees pulled Union within three.

Union proceeded to pull ahead for good on its opening drive of the fourth quarter, thanks in part to a 20-yard reverse pass from wide receiver and back-up QB Jay Scheel to Hadachek. On the next play, Burnside recorded a 4-yard TD run with 6:16 remaining.

"We wanted to run it," Union coach Joe Hadachek said of the reverse. "I wasn't sure when, but to be honest with you, Trev's the one that called it."

"We needed a spark right there," Trev Hadachek added. "We were at a really dull spot in the game. We called timeout, we come and run that trick play, we got ourselves going and scored on the next play. ... I knew Jay could make that throw and I knew I could catch it."

Following Union's go-ahead score, Decorah had the ball twice. But a fourth-down pass break-up by Hadachek and an interception by Zempel as Josh Clark was pressuring the Vikings' quarterback ended the game.
Decorah, which used Humpal's punt returns of 30 and 49 yards to set up its first two scores, eventually found itself out of gas at the finish line.

"We were getting tired, worn down, we couldn't get our breath," Decorah coach Bill Post said. "We made a nice goal-line stand there, but once Burnside popped that long run through there it kind of let a little more wind out of our sails than we wanted."

Moen completed 5 of 10 passes for 101 yards and a touchdown in his varsity debut. Josey Jewell led Decorah with 52 yards rushing on 15 carries, and Gayge Samuelson added 41 yards and a touchdown on eight carries.

"I thought we did some pretty good things," Post said. "Our offensive line blocked pretty well. Defensive line played well the first three quarters, but they started tiring at the end there and we couldn't keep them out. We couldn't get any pressure on Burnside."

Burnside rushed for 135 of his game-high 167 yards in the final two quarters.

"Wes definitely got himself ready for this game," Trev Hadachek said. "In the offsesaon he goes harder than anyone out there. He took over in the second half."

Coach Joe Hadachek couldn't have been more pleased with the conditioning of his team in Week 1. "I've got to hand it to our players," he said. "They pay a price, we lift four times a week. I do feel that we're in decent shape."

Decorah 0 10 7 0 - 17
Union 6 0 8 6 - 20
Union - Jay Scheel 31 pass from Trev Hadachek (kick failed)
Dec - Joshua Lee 25 field goal
Dec - Gayge Samuelson 7 run (Lee kick)
Dec - Kyle Kregel 45 pass from Blake Moen (Lee kick)
Union - Wes Burnside 5 run (Will Crees from Hadachek)
Union - Burnside 4 run (kick failed)
TEAM STATISTICS
Dec Union
First downs 10 12
Rushes-yards 40-157 41-196
Passing yards 101 68
Comp-Att-Int 5-11-1 4-8-1
Return yards 86 3
Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-0
Penalties-yards 3-15 5-35
Punts-avg. 3-36 5-34.6
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
DECORAH - Josey Jewell 15-52, Gayge Samuelson 8-41, Kyle Hove 1-43, Drew Schwartz 4-26, Blake Moen 9-5, Dustin Smith 1-1, Michael Peter 1-minus 11.
UNION - Wes Burnside 28-167, Trev Hadachek 13-29.
Passing
DECORAH - Blake Moen 5-10-1, 101 yards; Samuelson 0-1-0, 0 yards.
UNION - Hadachek 3-7-1, 48 yards; Jay Scheel 1-1-0, 20 yards.
Receiving
DECORAH - Jon Porter 2-51, Samuelson 2-42, Jewell 1-8.
UNION - Hunter Zempel 2-17, Scheel 1-31, Hadachek 1-20.


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