Grafton breaks the rock in 2nd half:

It took one half of football for the Grafton High School football team’s offense to get going last Friday at Wauwatosa East.

The defense, on the other hand, started strong and stayed stingy all game in a 22-6 victory.

The Black Hawks moved to 4-1 on the season while Wauwatosa East slipped to 2-3.

“The backbone of our team is our defense. We can always rely on them to hold teams to low points,” coach Jim Norris said.

Joshua Lee-O’Bryant recovered one fumble, and J.P. Benzchawel hopped on another — after an Andrew Ribecky sack caused the ball to squirt out in the third quarter — and Nathan Krause made a first-half interception.

“It’s a whole swarm getting after it,” Norris said.

Sophomore Vince Cameranesi made his first start at quarterback after a strong week of practice earned him the spot, Norris said.

Cameranesi went 8-for-16 passing for 93 yards and an interception, but perhaps his most important job was to hand the ball to the Hawks’ offensive leader, running back Canon Pfaff.

The senior racked up 213 yards and a touchdown on 38 carries, and he got credit for a touchdown pass when he flipped the ball to Dominic Voiland on a 3-yard reverse for the Hawks’ first touchdown of the game in the third quarter.

The Hawks led, 3-0, at halftime thanks to a 20-yard field goal by Silvio Lanza with two seconds left in the second quarter.

Wauwatosa East closed to 10-6 in the third quarter, but a bad snap on a punt led to the punter to step out of bounds in the end zone, giving the Hawks a safety. Lanza later kicked an 18-yard field goal on the calm night, and Pfaff finished the scoring with a 22-yard run.
“I’m proud of the seniors and upperclassmen,” Norris said of his team’s second-half effort.
Voiland caught nine balls for 96 yards and a touchdown, and had eight yards rushing on two carries, on one of which he improvised and nearly scored. On a jet sweep left, Voiland didn’t find any daylight so he stopped and cut back all the way across the field and used his speed to make his way down the right sideline before being pushed out of bounds.

 “That one run was really not designed,” Norris said.

The Hawks tried a few punts and field goals with a mixed bag of success. One fake punt worked.
“It just adds another wrinkle to what we do. It gives teams a whole different group of plays to practice against,” Norris said.

The total yards were nearly even, with the Red Raiders’ gaining 326 and the Hawks 321, but the score ended up being lopsided thanks to Grafton’s constant effort.

The game once again embodied the Hawks motto, “Pound the rock.”

“The true meaning of pound the rock is show up everyday with a blue-collar mentality and your sledgehammer,” Norris said. “Keep swinging,  it will break. All you can do is put your best effort forward and it will break.

“I’m not sure when or where, but it will.”

For the Hawks, it broke in that second half when they outscored the Red Raiders, 19-6.

Grafton hosts Watertown (2-4) on Friday.