Battle Of The Birds: Hawks Soar Over T's

The Mahwah Thunderbirds fell to the River Dell Hawks in a battle of the birds football game Friday night.

The T-Birds had trouble from the start, with River Dell taking control of the game early on. Hawks Quarterback Tim Barnes led the charge with a 48-yard touchdown and Brian Samuel followed by recovering a blocked punt. Ryan Duran scored on a 20-yard run and caught a 30-yard TD pass from Sean Boland both in the second quarter. Sean Boland added a 12-yard run in the fourth to secure the win. Alex Derner had five straight PAT's.

The entire time, the Hawks stingy defense kept the T-Birds off their game. Mahwah would not score until the fourth quarter, with back-to-back TD's by Andy Shuart and Greg Rozar. T-Birds kicker Anthony Walker made two PAT's.

Check out the Patch photo gallery of the 35-14 game.