Ozaukee falls in regular season finale

The Hilbert High School football team’s well-known running attack did its thing against visiting Ozaukee last Friday night.

Two Huskies’ running backs combined for more than 320 yards on the ground in a 27-7 win over the Warriors.

Ozaukee finished the regular season 4-3 overall and 3-3 in the Big East Conference, good for fourth. Hilbert finished 5-2 in the Big East and overall.

The Huskies stayed true to form, running the ball again and again.

“Hilbert’s just a machine,” Ozaukee coach Michael Schatz said. “They’re eventually going to break a few but you hope you can limit it.”

The Warriors accomplished that feat in the first half. After the Huskies completed one of their two passes on the night for an 11-yard touchdown, the Warriors bounced back, scoring on a Ty Szczerbinski 1-yard run.

The game was knotted at 7 at halftime.

The Huskies scored two quick touchdowns just more than two minutes apart in the third quarter to take control of the game. Dylan Dohr scored on a 44-yard run and Reed Breckheimer scored on a 38-yard scamper.

“It’s one of those things where you know they’re eventually going to hit big ones,” Schatz said.

That running game regularly results in the Huskies dominating time of possession as well.

Ozaukee star running back Jack Genzmer still managed 21 carries but was held to 93 yards.

“Jack and the O-line continued to just pound it,” Schatz said.

Szczerbinski went 6-for-14 passing for 82 yards.

“Ty played his best game throwing the ball,” Schatz said.

Cael Large ran six times for 38 yards and caught four balls for 53 yards.

Defensive back Phil McLarty stopped two Huskies’ scoring drives with interceptions. One came in the first quarter as Hilbert was on the move, and McLarty picked off another in the fourth quarter when the Huskies had driven inside the Warriors’ 5-yard line.

McLartY also caught two passes for 29 yards.

Schatz said McLarty’s play keeps reminding him that he should have started him on both sides of the ball from the start of the season.

“He’s just showing how talented he is and how much I overlooked how important he is to both this defense and offense at the beginning of the year,” he said.

Freshman linebacker Bret Hamm led the team in tackles with 16.

“He is showing how dominant he is going to be on the defensive side of the ball. We already knew how good he is at running back,” Schatz said.

Brandon Harbison had 13 tackles, and McLarty and Large each had 12. Braxton Gahan had 11.

The Warriors play at Randolph in the playoffs on Friday.