DIKE — The South Hamilton football team had the complete attention of Dike-New Hartford here Friday night in a Class 1A playoff game.

Behind a 21-point opening quarter, the Wolverines advanced, eliminating the Hawks, 55-22.

South Hamilton (5-5 overall) got on the board in the second behind a 20-yard touchdown run by Kolby Hodnefield, cutting the deficit to 21-6. A pair of late TDs in the fourth would be added to the scoreboard for the Hawks.

Senior Nick Severseike rushed 17 times for 151 yards in the loss.

For Dike-New Hartford (9-1), Noah Borcherding rushed 11 times for 140 yards with four touchdowns, Colin Meester completed 5 of 9 for 63 with a score to Carson Costello and Devon Lotts had a rushing TD.

The Hawks kept their postseason streak alive following a difficult start to the season, finishing as the district runners-up. This marked the final game for seniors Ashton Williams, Lane Tarbill, Braden Young, Severseike, Andrew Jensen, Anders Egelykke, Brock Zorn, Connor Deppe, Landon Sogard and Grant Larson.

“This team has had quite the roller coaster ride this year,” South Hamilton head coach Paul Skartvedt said. “We knew the first three games were going to be tough with the team we were bringing in to the season. We only had four players with varsity experience coming back from a very senior heavy team in 2023.

“South Hardin has a good team with a lot of depth and athletic players. The next two games we knew they were both good teams that were playoff teams in Class 2A. You add that to the fact I told the kids before they got onto the bus before the West Marshall game that Owen Renaud, a teammate from a year ago, passed away in a plane accident was putting a lot of the kids in a tough emotional situation.

Then coming back the next Friday to play a rivalry game against Roland Story after attending Owen’s funeral that morning, which was the first funeral for a lot of our players, and trying to play a game was tough. We then got into our district and had experience under our belt and started playing Hawk football.

Over the last four seasons, South Hamilton has won 25 games and two district championships.

“I am very proud of our players for not giving up after our first three games and wanting to keep improving the whole season,” Skartvedt said. “I’m proud of this senior class for keeping the tradition of tough nosed football alive and passing it on to the next class of players.

“We have work to do but I am excited for next year all ready.”