Gary Glidden had a huge first half rushing the football on his senior night.
Glidden put up 130 of his 190 total yards on the ground and scored twice, once from six yards and once from a yard out, helping the Hermon Hawks to a 37-7 victory.
After Winslow took out Hermon in the Class C North final last year, revenge was on the mind for the Hawks.
“It gave us motivation to go out and win,” Glidden said. “It was everything. Same field, same team and we wanted to get revenge on them and we went out and did that.”
Also in the first half, Hermon quarterback Johnny Kokoska threw for 27 yards and ran for 58 yards and two scores. The Hawks converted three two-point conversions out of four attempts and led Winslow 30-7 at the half.
After Kokoska scored from 18 yards out in Hermon’s first drive, Winslow answered with a strong drive that ended with a one-yard touchdown run up the middle from Gavin Chambers.
Hermon’s defense bent but rarely broke on Saturday night at Hampden Academy, a stark improvement from last year’s team.
“We are very good up front,” Hermon coach Kyle Gallant said. “They do a really good job. What I loved was the resiliency of our defense. A year ago we would have let Winslow just hammer us and I don’t think we had a three-and-out against them and tonight we had a bunch.”
Saturday’s win over Winslow was just Hermon’s second over the Black Raiders since Gallant got to Hermon six years ago.
“It’s big for our program and we needed this to even have a chance at the number one (seed),” Gallant said.
The Black Raiders couldn’t get anything going on offense afterward, punting on their next drive and then muffing a kick return late in the first half that gave Hermon possession once again.
The Hawks held Winslow to just 66 yards of first-half offense.
Glidden scored again in the fourth quarter on a four-yard run to put Hermon ahead 37-7.
“He’s huge. He’s a phenomenal football player,” Gallant said of Glidden. “He’s as tough as it gets and he runs hard. He’s not overly big but runs extremely hard.”
Hermon (5-2) will play Medomak Valley next week, the top-seed in Class C North, to finish the regular season.
