Silverdale Tops Notre Dame For First Win

Landon Deitch Scores Two TDs In 40-20 Victory

Saturday, September 23, 2023
John Hunt

It’s been a long fall for the Silverdale Seahawks and it’s just now half over, but good things will always come to those who work hard.

The Seahawks lost a bunch of players to graduation a year ago, including most of their offensive production, so it has literally been a rebuilding process for coach Mike Connor and his team.

That hard work and perseverence finally paid off on Friday night as they claimed their first win of the season with a 40-20 victory at Notre Dame’s Jim Eberle Field.

The Seahawks are now 1-5 overall and 1-3 in Division II-AA East region play while Notre Dame falls to 1-5 overall and 0-4 in region play.

The first half was a roller-coaster ride with Silverdale scoring first. Notre Dame had a 13-12 lead with 5:01 left in the half before the Seahawks scored in the final minute for a 19-13 lead at the break.

The second half was a different story as the Seahawks pulled away with touchdowns in each of their first two, forcing the Fighting Irish to battle from behind.

Connor couldn’t help but grin when the final horn sounded. He was the first to say that it’s been a long fall, but that his kids have never quit working. He was just happy to see them being rewarded finally for all their hard work.

“We finally get to celebrate a little bit,” he began as his players headed toward the Silverdale cheering section to whoop and holler a little bit with them.

“These kids have been working their tails off since the season began and things finally went our way tonight. We had to play our best game to do it, but I thought we did a good job of limiting Notre Dame’s big plays after the first half and that was a key.

“Our goal was to win the last four minutes of the second quarter and the first four minutes of the third. I feel like we were able to do just that, but these kids just kept believing and playing for each other. It’s been a long time coming, but we just have to keep working to get better,” Connor said in his usual quiet tone.

The Seahawks have been using a hurry-up offense for a while now and that may have been a factor as the Irish defenders may have gotten a bit tired after watching the Seahawks run 82 offensive plays.

Notre Dame coach Charles Fant liked the way his team battled, but the Seahawks were just relentless in their offensive attack and the Irish couldn’t do anything to stop it.

“Those guys ran a bunch of plays and they just kept coming at us,” Fant said when the game ended.

“I thought we did a pretty good job defensively in the first half, but they were able to put the ball in the end zone in the second half when penalties really killed us.

“We’ve been a big-play team all year, but it seemed like every time we got something started, we’d get hit with a big penalty. There have been games where our offense was good and others where our defense stood out. We just need to learn how to put it all together and we haven’t done that yet,” he nodded.

Silverdale did most of its damage on the ground as they picked up 283 yards in 63 attempts. Adding another 77 yards through the air, the Seahawks finished with 360 total yards.

Notre Dame finished with 326, including 137 on the ground and another 189 through the air. But when it came right down to it, Silverdale made the big plays at the most important times while Notre Dame did not.

Freshman Luke Bowman put the Seahawks on the board first when he scored from the 2 with 5:12 left in the opening stanza.

After an exchange of punts, the Irish knotted the score when E.J. Carter raced 84 yards for a TD with a minute left in the first.

Landon Deitch put the Seahawks back on top with 5:35 left in the second on his first TD run of three yards but Notre Dame came right back and took its only lead of the game 34 seconds later when Cooper Campbell hooked up with Landon Goeller on a 40-yard scoring strike. Andrew Maddox then booted the extra point for a 13-12 lead.

The Seahawks refused to roll over and came right back to score, marching 68 yards in 15 plays, taking the lead for the last time when freshman quarterback Connor Jenne hooked up with Nate Hampton on a 19-yard TD throw with 27.4 seconds before intermission.

The key play in the drive was a 10-yard gain by Jenne on a fourth-and-five play from the 30.

Silverdale forced a punt on Notre Dame’s first possession in the second half and the Seahawks then put the game out of reach with a six-yard run by Cannon Rogers and then a 32-yard scamper by Deitch for a 33-13 lead with 4:31 left in the third.

Notre Dame cut it to 33-20 when Jadon Vintrov scored from the two with 1:11 left, but they didn’t get any closer as the Seahawks added a final score with 2:24 to play when Jenne scored on a keeper from the 3.

Hampton intercepted a pass from Campbell in the last minute to prevent any further scoring.

Deitch led the Seahawks with 130 yards on 20 carries and his two TDs while Caleb Greco had 91 yards on 21 attempts. Jenne added 47 yards on a dozen carries.

Hampton was the leading receiver for Silverdale with 51 yards on three grabs, including the 19-yard touchdown.

Carter was the leading rusher for Notre Dame as he finished with 142 yards on 18 carries, including 113 yards on 11 attempts in the first half.

Goeller was the leading receiver for the Irish with 80 yards on three catches, including the 40-yard TD, while Justin Baker had 51 yards on six catches and Tay Carter 53 yards on five.

Silverdale will be at home next Friday to host Lakeway Christian while Notre Dame will be on the road to battle Boyd Buchanan.

SILVERDALE 6 13 14 7 -- 40

NOTRE DAME 6 7 7 0 -- 20

SBA – Luke Bowman 2 run (kick failed), 5:12 left in first;

ND – E.J. Carter 84 run (kick blocked), 1:00 left in first;

SBA – Landon Deitch 3 run (kick failed), 5:35 left in second;

ND – Landon Goeller 40 pass from Cooper Campbell (Andrew Maddox kick), 5:01 left in second;

SBA – Nate Hampton 19 pass from Connor Jenne (Caleb Greco kick), 0:27.4 left in second;

SBA – Cannon Rogers 6 run (Jack Mauser kick), 9:45 left in third;

SBA – Deitch 32 run (Mauser kick), 4:31 left in third;

ND – Jadon Vintrov 2 run (Maddox kick), 1:11 left in third;

SBA – Jenne 3 run (Mauser kick), 2:24 left in fourth.