The Hatchet football team entered the last game of the season looking for its first win.
But Eau Claire Regis improved to 8-1 by scoring 21 points in the game’s opening three minutes, jump-starting a 35-0 lead in the first half of Friday’s road game.
Tomahawk’s small squad of 18 players showed pluck by scoring three touchdowns in the second half to cut it to 35-21.
Payton DuPlayee scored from two yards out with 5:00 left in the third quarter, then Dan Galloy caught a 12-yard TD strike from Austin Belille with 4:01 to go in the game. DuPlayee closed it out with just :25 left on a four-yard blast. Dylan Myers hit on all three PAT kicks.
DuPlayee finished with 93 yards on 23 carries, and Belille (12-44) and Lorne Ahrens (7-15) boosted the rushing attack to 152 yards. Belille completed 7-of-12 passes for 107 yards. Ahrens (3-24), Galloy (2-46) and Aaron Leonhard (1-28) were the targets.
Regis gained 303 yards rushing, paced by Chris Pica-Anderson (5-125), Bobby Mickelson (5-72), Sam Bachmeier (5-37) and Mike Maenner (8-34). Cole Steagall completed 1-of-2 passes for 30 yards.
Regis jumped out with a 63-yard run from Pica-Anderson, a 40-yarder from Mickelson and a 10-yarder from Maenner. Khadel Akindolire scored from 5 yards with :51 left in the first quarter, and Pica-Anderson raced 41 yards with 7:19 remaining in the second. Cam Pedersen made all five kicks.
Pica-Anderson intercepted Belille once.
The Hatchets closed out an 0-9 campaign, but will lose just five seniors to graduation-DuPlayee, Galloy, Randal Freeman, Peter Kleinschmidt and Allen Krick.