Both the Washington Hatchets and North Daviess Cougars took full advantage of their opening week of sectional with wins that keep them alive in tournament play.

Washington 5-5

The Hatchets won their first sectional game since 1992 with a 30-15 victory over Sullivan last Friday.

“This was our first sectional win since the early 90s and we feel like we made a huge statement,” said WHS coach Kelly Brashear.

“Sullivan was much more physical than people may have thought and they played their best football in the last three games. We thought we could ‘out-physical’ them and we did.”

The Hatchets amassed 304 yards of offense, as Brandon Clymer had 115 yard and Jeremy Hawthorne added 100 from the backfield.

However, the Hatchets did suffer one serious loss in the game as Zach Bullock tore his ACL/MCL and will be gone for the rest of the season and may also miss the wrestling season.

“We are going to miss him, but Justin Himsel did a nice job stepping in during the second half and is slated to start this week,” added Brashear.

This week the Hatchets travel to Enlow field to face off with Evansville Memorial. The Tigers moved to 2-8 with a win over Princeton, 55-6 in the opening round of sectional play and now face WHS on their home turf.

Memorial’s record may be deceiving, as the only 3A school on their schedule was powerhouse Mater Dei and the other win came over 4A Bosse. Other than Princeton and Mater Dei, everyone else has been a 4A or 5A school.

The Tigers have run the spread offense for the last few years, something the Hatchets have not seen a lot of. However, with so many teams in Evansville using the passing attack, Memorial may not be used to Washington’s more smash-mouth style.

“I think you may see us use our goal-line package in the middle of the field. We may just line up with a pair of tight ends and a wishbone and go right at them. We really want to keep our defense off the field.

“Defensively, their base package is a 4-3 with a cover 2 or 3 and I feel like we can match up.”

The Hatchets have not seen a lot of passing attacks like Memorials, but Brashear feels his best pass coverage may come in the form of a good pass rush. We need to keep the defensive ends going from the outside in and our tackles and nose tackles from the inside out,” added Brashear.

“They tend to be a very tall and athletic offense. Andrew Obaseki matches up well and we may move him to a corner and let him cover man-to-man while putting Cody Lee back at safety to help out.