Hawks hit the road for No. 13 Ellsworth

Beating the NJCAA's 13th-ranked team on the road will be a tall task for the Harper College football team today.

The Hawks (1-3) are in Iowa to take on Ellsworth Community College (4-1). The Panthers are coming off a 49-28 road loss to No. 10 Grand Rapids Community College.

Harper coach Eric Waldstein decided to raise the bar this week in practice by going with a more uptempo practice scheme, where offensive starters opposed defensive starters.

"This week of practice has been pretty good," Waldstein said. "There are going to be some guys who are going to see a little bit more playing time than they are used to."

One position battle Waldstein was not able to see play out in practice was the one between sophomore quarterback Stuart Augustine and freshman Alec Starr (Jacobs). Starr suffered what Waldstein called bruised ribs late in last week's loss. Due to the injury, Augustine will get the start today.

The Hawks have to be wary of 6-foot-3 redshirt freshman receiver Dexter Holmes. Waldstein called Holmes the Panthers' "go-to guy."

The Hawk defense also has to stop multi-talented qauarterback Willie Tindal, who has has rushed for 298 yards and passed for 1,209 this season.

"We talked a lot this week about playing smart football," Waldstein said.