Schools

Greenfield Football Season Abruptly Ends at Waterford

Hawks' first playoff appearance in nine years is a short, but important one.

The 2011 Greenfield football season was all about making it to the playoffs for the first time since 2002.

Mission accomplished.

As future teams return to the WIAA postseason, as second-year coach Scott Otto , building on this year’s foundation will be essential.

Find out what's happening in Greenfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Hustlin’ Hawks’ first playoff game in nine years was a lopsided, 42-7 blowout in favor of third-seeded host Waterford (9-1) on Friday, but it was just a stepping stone.

“You can’t make the mistakes we made, but a lot of that is predicated upon that we haven’t been here in nine years,” Otto said. “It’s something you have to get used to and unfortunately, the only way you get used to it is getting back here year after year after year.

Find out what's happening in Greenfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Our senior group did a great job of getting us back to the playoffs. Two years ago, they were a winless football team. This year, we’re 5-4 (in the regular season) … we’re headed in the right direction and I believe we’ll be a better team next year.”

Greenfield (5-5) fell victim to too many big first-half plays. Waterford quarterback Zach Fisher completed five passes of 17 yards or more en route to 8-of-12 passing for 180 yards and two touchdowns before intermission.

But it was the host’s rushing attack that caught Otto’s eye. Waterford’s second drive saw the Wolverines march 93 yards on 12 plays, and while a 44-yard pass completion by Fisher on a key third-down play kept the drive alive, the 11 other plays were runs, including Greg Steffens’ 5-yard touchdown with 2 minutes, 22 seconds left in the first quarter that snapped a scoreless tie.

“You can’t give up big plays, no doubt about it, but the thing I was most impressed with was even though there were a few through the air, the first couple of drives were more so on the ground,” Otto said. “ (Rushing defense) was kind of our strength and when they came right at our strength and got to us a little bit … it was after that, that they opened up their air game a little bit.”

From there Fisher picked the Hawks’ secondary apart. His precision passing coupled with Greenfield’s poor tackling led to another Waterford touchdown on the first play of the second quarter, giving the Wolverines a 14-0 advantage.

Greenfield’s next possession ended when quarterback Tyler Laverdure was intercepted by Matt Briggs and returned 34 yards for a touchdown with 5:25 left in the third.

Waterford scored again with less then a minute to go before halftime on a 17-yard TD pass from Fisher to Steffens four plays after the Wolverines recovered a Greenfield muffed punt.

The host outgained the visitors, 240-52, in offensive yards in the first half.

Waterford scored on their first two possessions of the third quarter to take a 42-0 lead before Laverdure capped an eight-play drive with an 8-yard TD run with less than a minute remaining in the fourth.

“We came wanting to win the football game. I know our kids weren’t just happy to be here,” Otto said. “The bottom line is Waterford right now is a better football team than we are."


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here