Downright defensive

The shutout New Hampton posted Friday night was just the proverbial icing on the cake.What really mattered was the win and the margin of victory in that 25-0 whitewashing of Forest City in the Class 2A, District 2 opener.“I’m not saying we didn’t want it,” senior Zach Wemark said, “but the first thing on our minds was to win and the second thing was to make sure we won by 17 or more points for the [playoff] tiebreaker. The shutout’s nice, but it wasn’t the ultimate goal.”The second-ranked Chickasaws improved to 3-0 overall, and they did it with a dominating performance on defense.Forest City was limited to 85 yards of total offense, and even on its lone big play, a 43-yard reception, junior Keagan John alertly stripped the ball from the receiver to force a turnover.“I thought tonight our defense was really solid,” coach Scott Frerichs said. “Our line play was the best it’s been, our linebackers flowed to the ball really well and our [defensive] backs did a nice job for the most part keeping the play in front of them.”By the time the carnage ended, New Hampton had held Forest City to three first downs, racked up four sacks and had five more tackles for loss on running plays.Josh Fenske led the way with 7.5 tackles, including two for losses while fellow linebacker Keaton Geerts had 5.5 tackles.For the full story, please see the Sept. 13 Tribune.