Second half surge leads to Raider victory

The Northwestern football team handled Hastings on Saturday, taking down the Broncos 35-6 on Senior/Parent day at Korver Field.
Led by sophomore quarterback Davis Bloemendaal’s three touchdown passes in the second half, the Raiders improved to 8-2 overall, 6-2 in the conference and extended their winning streak to seven games.
NW struggled early, trailing 6-0 late in the first half. The tide turned with an interception by sophomore linebacker Nate Van Ginkel, which led to a short touchdown run by sophomore running back Theo Bartman.
The Raiders never looked back. In the second half, Bloemendaal connected with junior receiver Eli Groenendyk for two of his touchdowns, as well as a 10 yard pass to Bartman for another score.
“We definitely came out a little flat,” said head coach Kyle Achterhoff. “Honestly, I said first half, we didn’t play very well, and we were ahead 7-6. Let’s play like we are capable of playing, and we’ll be fine.”
“Momentum is huge in the game of football,” Groenendyk said. “We couldn’t get anything rolling in the first half, but a couple big plays by our defense and then by our offense sparked our team for the rest of the game. Hastings has a tough defense, and they had us on our heels in the first half. We didn’t let our slow start plague us the entire game.”
Hastings was ultimately doomed by their mistakes. The Broncos passing game was an abysmal 5-22, with three interceptions to go along with a fumble.
“When we force teams to throw the ball, we are getting a lot of pressure on the quarterback,” Achterhoff said. “It’s not always getting the sacks, but we are knocking them down a lot.”
The Raiders moved up two spots in the rankings to No. 18 after yet another dominating performance.
“Honestly, that’s still disappointing,” Achterhoff said. “I think we are the best two-loss team in the country, but there are some ahead of us. We can’t affect the voters I guess.”
Groenendyk took a more optimistic view.
“Our team is on fire right now,” Groenendyk said. “We will continue to practice hard and prepare to crush Dordt like we know we can.”