Riley Matz was angry when he fell asleep Friday night.

Hardin Valley Academy’s junior quarterback didn’t like the lightning delay that stopped the season opener at halftime with the Hawks holding a 38-12 lead against visiting Karns.

Matz woke up focused and so did his teammates, posting a 45-25 victory over the Beavers after the game resumed Saturday afternoon.

“Keeping my mindset up was extremely hard,” Matz said. “I went to bed pretty mad. I just tried to tell myself that we’re better than them. We’ve got to sleep better than them, wake up and shower better than them, just do everything we could possibly do to be better than them. I think it paid off. That’s what our whole team was thinking, and it got us the win.”

HVA coach Tyler Wynn wanted to keep playing Friday night, too.

“I would have stayed here until 2 in the morning to play last night,” he said. “When you get things rolling, you kind of feel those juices flowing, and I think that’s kind of where we were at as a team last night, so I would have loved to have finished it.”

The Hawks avenged a 24-0 loss at Karns last season when they finished 1-9.

Wynn pushed his team hard during the offseason.

“We got knocked off in the first one last year and I think these guys kind of took it on the chin,” Wynn said. “We challenged them to do more and to put in more work, to put in more effort. Our core values are resiliency, investment, selflessness, and effort.

“We challenged them in all four of those areas and said it’s going to be a tough offseason. It ain’t going to be for everybody. Our numbers started trimming down, and our numbers started slowly going down, but our investment, our buy-in from the guys started going up.”

The First Half

HVA had a 38-12 lead after Friday’s first half full of penaltiesand big plays.

Lightning delayed kickoff until about 8 p.m. The game was postponed during halftime at about 10:45.

Karns had three turnovers in the first half (two fumbles, one interception), and HVA had no turnovers.

“Last night was rough,” Karns coach Lee Warren said. “I felt like everything that could have gone wrong for us went wrong. We had the blocked punt, had the blocked PAT, had the big kickoff return from them, had the fumble on our side of the field. But I’m proud of how we came out here and responded on a Saturday afternoon. Today is something we can build on. We can put yesterday in the past.”

Karns scored on the opening possession, using a 10-play drive starting at its 18-yard line.

Senior quarterback Austin Slover threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Weston Ritter; Luis Figueroa Lopez’s PAT kick was blocked by Owen Vaughan, and the Beavers led 6-0, their only lead of the half.

Becks Allen returned the kickoff 62 yards to the Karns 20.

Six plays later, Matz scored on a 5-yard run, and Allen’s conversion run gave HVA an 8-6 lead.

Karns fumbled on the next play, and it was recovered by HVA defensive end Chance Sharp at the Beavers’ 28.

A Karns penalty and three plays later, Samuel Mann scored on a 3-yard run, and Mann’s conversion run made it 16-6 with 5:20 left in the first quarter.

Karns fielded a short kickoff at the 45 and scored two plays and an HVA penalty later.

Slover’s 22-yard touchdown pass to Ritter cut the deficit to 16-12, and Slover’s conversion pass was incomplete.

HVA got its second turnover when Vaughan intercepted Slover’s pass at the Hawks’ 10 and returned it to the 37-yard line.

Four plays and a Karns penalty later, Levi Amey scored on a 28-yard run. Mann’s conversion run made it 24-12 with 9:38 left in the half.

The Beavers’ next possession ended when the punt snap sailed over the head of Tanner Clark, who tried to chase the ball down in his end zone before losing the fumble.

HVA defensive end Andrew Perkins recovered it for a touchdown, and Logan Holbrook’s PAT kick gave the Hawks a 31-12 lead with 6:18 left.

Karns used three plays, got minus-7 yards, punted, and the Hawks started at their 40.

After an incompletion and 1-yard loss, HVA got a 61-yard touchdown pass from Matz to Brody Lamb, and Holbrook’s kick put the Hawks up 38-12 with 3:40 left.

At halftime, Karns had 250 total yards (115 rushing, 135 passing), and HVA had 173 total yards (102 rushing, 71 passing).

Slover completed 12 of 18 passes in the first half, and Matz was 3 of 8.

Karns had five penalties for 55 yards at halftime, and HVA had four for 50 yards.

The Second Half

HVA wasted no time stretching its lead Saturday afternoon.

On the fourth play of the second half, junior Chance Sharp ran 49 yards for a touchdown, and Holbrook’s PAT kick made it 45-12.

Karns also scored on its first drive Saturday, moving 61 yards on 10 plays.

Ritter’s 1-yard run and the PAT by Lopez cut the deficit to 45-19.

HVA went three and out.

Karns drove 64 yards on nine plays and scored on Slover’s 14-yard touchdown pass to Jonas Zimmerman. The Beavers trailed 45-25 after the conversion pass failed.

The Beavers got one more possession and were forced to punt on fourth-and-30 with about 2 minutes left.

“We wanted to win today,” Warren said. “That was it. We said we can’t win the game if we don’t win the half. I just challenged them to see what kind of men we were going to be, if we were going to lay down or if we were going to come out and fight, and we came out with fight and I’m proud of them for that.”

Karns finished with 393 total yards (153 rushing, 240 passing), and HVA had 295 total yards (185 rushing, 110 passing).

Slover completed 22 of 34 passes, and Matz was 6 of 12.

“It means a lot to the whole team, not just me,” Matz said. “A lot of glory to God, everything that he’s done to get the team here. We’re really happy. We’ve worked our (butts) off all offseason and it’s going to show all season long.”

Karns’ Cameron George rushed for 125 yards on 19 carries. Tre Ndayishimiye had seven catches for 73 yards for the Beavers.

Freshman Ayden Perry was HVA’s leading rusher with 64 yards on 11 carries.

“I’m extremely excited and proud for these guys who have bought into what we’re doing because it ain’t easy,” Wynn said. “I’m super proud of them.”

Article written by Dave Link/5Star Preps To read more on area high school sports or to see photo galleries, videos, stat leaders, etc… visit 5StarPreps.com — and use promo code New2025 for 30% off your first year or month subscription.

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