It only took two plays by South Warren to put Apollo in a deep hole early, and the Eagles’ football team was never able to get anything going in a 48-0 loss.
With Friday night’s first-round 5A state playoff loss, the season ends for Apollo (5-6), but head coach Phil Hawkins said his players left everything out on the field.
“Our team did their best, but their best wasn’t good enough,” he said. “Honestly, South Warren makes no mistakes. They controlled the line of scrimmage and they took care of every aspect of the football game.”
The Spartans (11-0) scored a touchdown on each of their first two plays and held a 27-0 lead after the first quarter. A pair of offensive touchdowns and a pick-six boosted their lead to 48-0 by halftime, and neither team scored in the second half. Hawkins put in his junior varsity squad for the second half.
“We could do very little offensively, and we couldn’t stop them defensively,” Hawkins said. “The young kids had a good time. We tried to get some value out of it. It gets them a little playoff experience and lets them see what a championship-level team looks like.”
Looking back on his first season in charge of Apollo, Hawkins said he’s proud of what the team was able to accomplish under a new style of play. While there were a few games that got away from them, he said they were simply overpowered by South Warren.
“For a first-year coach, you want to be as successful as you can,” Hawkins said. “But you are bringing in a new style of play and mentality. There’s an adjustment period. There’s a couple wins we left out there because of mistakes. Tonight we were outmatched. There’s a big difference.”
After the game, he told the seniors to hold their heads high and look back on their careers with pride.
“I told my seniors that five years from now, they’ll look back and they’ll know they’re the reason Apollo football has gotten to a great point,” he said. “They won 12 games in two years, and that’s an improvement on some of the woes in the past. They’re the reason the program is headed in the right direction.”
As for the players returning, Hawkins said the future is bright. The Eagles’ are bringing back plenty of talent, and they got to see what it takes to be a successful team.
“The reality is I’ve got 60 kids that will be back next year that will now have a better understanding of what we’re trying to do,” he said. “We have a very talented group of young kids. The future is going to be great for Apollo.”
