Hanover Central grabs a share of second straight NCC title

Hanover Central 21, Hobart 14

By Paul Honeycutt

HOBART — If you follow Hanover Central, you know that the football program has a nickname called “The Lake Show.”

The Lake Show took its act on the road, and for the very first time in program history, to Hobart on Friday night and came out victorious 21-14 to remain undefeated in the Northwest Crossroads Conference.

“It’s an ode to the Lakers from the 80’s and 90’s,” said Hanover Central coach Brian Parker. “They had their own style and I’d like to think that we do, too, only on the football field.”

Winners of 11 straight NCC matchups, Class 4A No. 13 Hanover Central (6-1, 5-0) also has not lost a conference game since 2020 when they were then ruling the Greater South Shore, which has guaranteed Hanover at least a share of the NCC crown for the second straight year.

While the Wildcats are used to flashy offensive performances, which they did get from the usual suspect and predictably guaranteed All-State running back Caiden Verrett, this time the defense shined against a balanced attack from No. 16 Hobart (4-3, 4-1). 

Hanover Central came up with two crucial turnovers, with the first coming on a Blake Belcher fumble recovery where he snatched the ball out of the air on an errant pitch exchange from Hobart after Verrett scored on the previous drive.

“You wanna talk about character? Blake is one of our top character guys,” said Parker. “He’s tough as nails.”

The second came on a Dylan Bowen interception in Wildcats territory with 0:02 left to ice the game.

Even though the Wildcats have steamrolled most of their opposition this year in games that featured running clocks, Bowen said the preparation didn’t change much, as they don’t take anyone lightly, especially a team like Hobart.

“Obviously we have a bunch of dudes, so we have the same preparation in practice whether we play two quarters or four quarters,” said Bowen.

Hobart dominated time of possession so it can try to keep the ball out of Hanover Central’s hands. 

After neither team scored in the first quarter, the Wildcats got on the board early in the second on Verrett’s first TD run of the night on a 2-yarder.

Hobart failed to score on its next drive, and Hanover went up 14-0 on a 42-yard touchdown strike from Tommy Bonner to Rocco Bartolomeo, who perfectly high-pointed the ball and muscled past two Brickies defenders while reaching the ball over the goal line.

The Bricks fought back and tied it at 14 with scores in the second and third quarters.

Hobart senior wide receiver Aidan Leonard hauled in an 18-yarder from sophomore QB Aleks Tatum on a fourth-and-6 in the second.

Willy Shearer, who ran for 129 yards on 27 carries, rushed one in from five yards out to cap an 8-play, 53-yard drive in the third.

Hobart also was hit with two crucial penalties early when a Shearer TD was called back in the first quarter due to an illegal formation and it had a face mask called that gave the Wildcats a first down and eventually Verrett’s first TD run.

Verrett, who blasted the Brickies defense with 194 rushing yards on 24 carries, capped the scoring with the go-ahead touchdown on a 26-yarder.

Tatum passed for 167 yards and ran for 67 more in the loss.

Bonner passed for 101 yards and rushed for 38 yards in the victory.

Hanover Central 21, Hobart 14

Hanover Central; 0 14 0 7 – 21

Hobart; 0 7 7 0 – 14

HC – Caiden Verrett 2 run (Logan Zilz kick), 11:25 2nd

HC – Rocco Bartolomeo 42 pass from Tommy Bonner (Zilz kick), 7:21 2nd

H – Aidan Leonard 18 pass from Aleks Tatum (Zander Lankford kick), 2:23 2nd

H – Willy Shearer 5 run (Lankford kick), 3:03 3rd

HC – Verrett 26 run (Zilz kick), 6:10 4th

Hanover Central;Hobart

First Downs;17;20

Total Yards;350;384

Rushes-Yards;31-237;41-223

Passing;113;161

Comp.-Att.-Int.;8-22-1;13-22-1

Penalties-Yards;2-10;7-70

Fumbles-Lost;1-0;3-1

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – HANOVER CENTRAL, Caiden Verrett 24-194, Tommy Bonner 6-38, Dylan Bowen 1-5. HOBART, Willy Shearer 27-129, Aleks Tatum 10-67, Max Pickett 3-20.

PASSING – HANOVER CENTRAL, Bonner 8-21-101-1-1, Verrett 1-1-12-0-0. HOBART, Tatum 13-22-161-1-1.

RECEIVING – HANOVER CENTRAL, Rocco Bartolomeo 5-65, Henry Maurer 1-30, Anthony Layman 3-18. HOBART, Aiden Rasch 5-80, Aidan Leonard 3-39, Connor Stafford 3-28, Shearer 1-8, Logan Peters 1-6.