The Hanover Hawks scored early, late and often in a 35-0 win over county-rival Atlee.

Hanover’s offensive unit racked up 333 yards on the night, often starting with strong field position thanks to excellent special teams play.

Kenny Fryman opened the scoring with a 40-yard TD run on the team’s first drive. On their next possession, Deane Cheatham rammed home a 1-yard score on 4th down.

After a stalemated second quarter, the Hawks put the game out of reach with rushing TDs by Cheatham and Trey Facison, as well as a TD pass from Josh Wells to Carlton Davis.

“I thought we struggled a little bit offensively in the first half but we came back in the second half and changed things up,” Hanover coach Josh Just said. “We came out with a very good second half offensively. I thought special teams played outstanding all night.”

Meanwhile, the Hawks defense was dominant, holding the Raiders to just 65 yards total offense. In a microcosm of Atlee’s season, quarterback Dylan Garthwright overthrew one of his only open receivers all night, for what would have been a walk-in touchdown.

“It just wasn’t our night,” Atlee coach Roscoe Johnson said. “Things didn’t go our way and [Hanover] played well tonight.”

With the loss, Atlee falls to 1-7 with games against Armstrong and Lee-Davis still to play. The Raiders will need wins from both to match last year’s 3-7 mark.

Hanover, ranked 10th in the latest Fox/DigitalSports Top 10 poll, improves to 5-3. They will face tough tests in Lee-Davis and Henrico to close out their season.

With wins, the Hawks should again make the Division 5 playoffs, where they won the Central Region title a year ago. However, Just is taking nothing for granted.

“We’ve got a big game coming up with Lee-Davis. They are a tough physical team that regardless of records they’re going to come out and play us their best,” Just said. “It’s going to be a pretty good fight next week between the both teams…it’ll be tough.”

Atlee 0 0 0 0 -- 0

Hanover 14 0 7 14 – 35

H – Fryman 40 run (Moore kick)

H – Cheatham 1 run (Moore kick)

H – Cheatham 4 run (Moore kick)

H – Davis 15 pass from Wells (Moore kick)

H – Facsion 25 run (Moore kick)