Bartlett takes down Elgin

One team came in undefeated and the other came in winless.

But it was tough nonetheless for the Bartlett Hawks as they took a 49-22 Upstate Eight Conference win over Elgin in football action at Millennium Field Friday night.

Coming into the second half with a 28-14 lead, the Hawks (6-0, 4-0) took advantage of 3 fumble recoveries, finding the end zone twice on the recoveries.

"Penalties and turnovers really hurt us," said Elgin coach Dave Bierman. "You take them away and this is a closer game and we might have a chance."

But the Hawks ran good time management in the second half rushing for 180 yards with Fabian Libreri scoring on a 36-yarder in the third quarter and 2 fourth-quarter touchdowns coming from Andrew Gorski (2 yards) and Cristopher Cruz (39 yards).

"We had several backs run the ball well," said Bartlett coach Tom Meaney. "We wanted to take care of the clock in the second half and we did a good job with that."

The Hawks opened the game off going to the air as quarterback Josh Hasenberg went 8 for 10 in the first quarter including a 15-yard TD pass to Cory Brown to start the game's scoring.

"It wasn't really the game plan to go to the air as much as we did to start the game," Hasenberg said. "But we saw that (Elgin) was loading up at the front and it worked out for us to go to the pass."

Hasenberg also added a 13-yard TD pass to Alex VanNess with 3:03 left in the first half and Bartlett added a 6-yard Libreri run and a 7-yard Corleon Richardson run that gave the Hawks a 28-7 lead.

But the Maroons (0-6, 0-3) struck back in the final seconds as quarterback Tom Roth found Jamal Cook for a 68-yard touchdown with five ticks remaining.

"Down 14 at the half and getting the ball back in the second half I didn't feel that bad," Bierman said. "But the kids worked hard. (Bartlett's) obviously a good ballclub, but our guys competed."

Roth added a 38-yard TD run in the first half and also connected with Timothy Newcombe for a 19-yard TD pass in the fourth quarter.