By JASON KING
Leader sports writer
HAZEN — The rivalry lived up to the hype as visiting Carlisle claimed the 6-2A Conference championship outright with a defensively dominated 12-8 victory over Hazen at Hornet Field on Friday.
The Bison (10-0, 7-0) held the ball for nearly 75 percent of the game, and stacked the box defensively against Matt Tennison, the Hornets’ standout senior running back, especially in the second half.
Carlisle also relied on its depth at running back with good nights for sophomore Bo Weddle and senior Braxton Petrus.
Tennison was held to 51 yards rushing on 13 carries although he did haul in Hazen’s only score on a 20-yard pass play from quarterback Devin Bonds with 36 seconds remaining.
“Ball control and good defense – that’s what we base our whole program around,” Carlisle coach Scott Waymire said. “We did a good job of executing against a good Hazen team.”
The Bison took their opening drive to start the second half 71 yards in 11 plays to score on a play-action rollout pass from senior quarterback Zac King to Petrus from eight yards out, and also managed to burn almost seven minutes off the clock, taking it down to the 5:16 mark of the third quarter.
Hazen tried to answer by going to its biggest playmaker in Tennison, which helped move the chains once, but on the second set of downs, the Bison defense stood up and held Tennison to no gain on first down, and stuffed him for a yard loss on third and six from the Hazen 47-yard line to force a punt.
“Tennison – we’ve seen him since he was a seventh grader,” Waymire said. “He’s a very good ball player, plays with a lot of heart. He has a lot of talent to go along with that, and that’s a deadly combination. Our guys know that. Our guys know Matt Tennison is a ball player, and you’ve got to stop him if you’re going to beat Hazen.”
Carlisle took the lead and established clock dominance on its second possession of the game with a drive that spanned the 3:27 mark of the first quarter to the seven-minute mark of the second quarter, going 80 yards in 16 plays ending with an option keep by King from four yards. Weddle was stopped short on the two-point conversion attempt to keep the score at 6-0.
The Bison did the hard way with a series of short gains mostly of three and four yards, with an eight-yard rush by Weddle on the second play of the drive and a seven-yard gain by senior Ty Vaughn later in the drive that took the ball down to the Hazen 12-yard line.
Hazen threatened to come back and tie with a long drive of its own, going 49 yards in 10 plays all the way down to the Bison 13-yard line before sophomore Deron Ricks came up with the defensive play of the game for Carlisle. Ricks stripped the ball from Bonds on a quarterback keep and also fell on it to give possession back to the Bison with 2:43 left to play in the first half.
Carlisle came up empty on the scoreboard on its final drive, but the nine minutes of clock the Bison let tick away put Hazen’s back against the wall down two scores with just over four minutes left to play once the Hornets finally got the ball back at their own 12-yard line.
The drive appeared as though it might stall when the Hornets were flagged for holding to negate an eight-yard pickup by Bonds to put Hazen back at its own 33 facing a second-and-22 situation, but Bonds found an open receiver for a 34-yard pass play, this time putting the ball at Carlisle’s 33-yard line.
The Hornets then caught a break when Carlisle went offside on fourth-and-four at the 27 to move the chains again. Bonds rushed down to the 20 on the next play to set up the scoring pass.
Bonds scrambled frantically from the middle to the left and towards the middle again before spotting Tennison running left in the end zone with Weddle covering.
Tennison and Weddle both went up and came down with the ball, but Tennison wrestled it away after hitting the turf just as the official ran up to signal a touchdown.
Greg Metcalf hauled in the two-point conversion pass from Bonds to set the final margin.
The Bison rushed 54 times for 263 total yards, led by Weddle’s 22 carries for 123 yards.
Petrus added 80 yards on 16 totes and had one reception for a touchdown from King, who rushed only four times for eight yards and a touchdown on the ground as well. Chris Hart also added 11 passing yards in the first half when he hit King for a first down play in the second quarter.
The Hornets were held to 88 yards rushing while Bonds finished 7 for 9 passing for 70 yards and a score to push the overall total to 158 yards.
The Bison will have a bye next week as 6-2A champs, and will host the winner between the 4-2A No. 4 seed and the No. 5 seed out of the 6-2A on Nov. 18 at Fred C. Hardke Field.
“They’re a good group,” Waymire said. “Every Monday, they’ve been focused. They take each week at a time and each game at a time, and I’ve been proud of that. I don’t see them doing anything different. They’re a special group of young men, and just proud to be a part of them.”
