Young Hawks playing for football titles on Saturday

Aaron Shaffer
Youth Sports Correspondent
If you haven’t spent much time in Iowa Park you may not know how seriously we take our youth sports especially when it comes to our Top of Texas Football Program. These kids and coaches start practice in the heat of the summer practicing 4 days a week for two and a half hours a day. It’s not just the kids and coaches that sacrifice, it’s the parents that are sitting in the stands in the brutal Texas heat every day at practice. They play every Saturday and this year was tougher than most with the hottest October on record. This year the hard work and dedication of our kids and coaches have earned a spot in the playoffs. All four of our teams made it to the playoffs but only three teams made it to the big game.
This past Saturday our third grade Hawks played Windthorst in Windthorst. It was a defensive battle the whole game. The Hawks defense made a crucial stop with 45 seconds left in the game to take it to overtime with a score 6-6. The Hawks got the ball first and made some impressive offensive plays. The Hawks worked the ball down the field to the 1-yard line then they were able to drive it in on a quarterback keeper. Windthorst got the ball and the Hawks only allowed them to gain 2 yards on four plays to end the drive. With that stop the third grade Hawks took home the win. Two weeks ago the Hawks lost to Windthorst 34-32 in double overtime — they were not going to let that happen again. The third grade Hawks will host Archer City at Hawk Stadium at 11 a.m. on Saturday for the championship.
Also, this past Saturday our fourth grade team took on City View at Hawk Stadium. It was a heck of a game. The Hawks defense was on fire and we held them to one touchdown in the first half. We came out hot to start the second half with two unanswered rushing touchdowns by Ryder Wuthrich and Rhett Garcia then we made a critical fourth down stop with five minutes left in the fourth quarter. We took over on down at the City View 20-yard line. Banks Morris scored the final touchdown with under two minutes left in the game. City View got the ball back with 20 seconds left on the clock they elected for a pass play that was intercepted by Levi Swaney to end the game. The final score was 22-6 with your Iowa Park Hawks winning the game. The fourth grade Hawks defense has only allowed 18 points to be scored all season. With this win the fourth grade earned a spot in the Championship game this coming Saturday at Hawk Stadium against the Holliday Eagles at 1 p.m. So far this season our fourth grade Hawks are undefeated with a win on Saturday they could end the season with a perfect record.
The fifth grade Hawks played Archer City Saturday night and again it was nothing but a defensive battle to the end. It was tied up 0-0 until the 4th quarter when Anthony (Baby) Rodriquez took a quarterback keeper to bring the Hawks the lead. To end the game Ryder Nichols caught an interception at the end of the 4th quarter to hold on to the lead.
The third grade Hawks will play Archer City at 11 a.m. and the fourth grade Hawks will play Holliday at 1 p.m. and the fifth grade Hawks will play Windthorst at 3 p.m. at Hawk Stadium. There will be a pep rally Saturday morning at 8:45 a.m. at Hawk Stadium you don’t want to miss this. Let’s get these boys pumped up for a win. We have a great opportunity to bring home three championships in one season. I don’t think that has ever happened in the history of Iowa Park Top of Texas Football. If you are looking for the most exciting football you have ever seen you don’t want to miss out this Saturday. We need all of our Hawk fans to come out and show support for these young men and coaches to let them know how much we appreciate all of the hard work they put in through the season.