Barely three weeks ago, Hiawatha picked up a 54-point win against Rockford Christian Life.

The teams met again Saturday and the Hawks fell down early to the Eagles and led by a single score going into the second quarter.

But all three phases kicked into gear as Hiawatha blocked a punt, recovered a fumble and scored on every full possession in the quarter to pull away to a 54-6 home win over Rockford Christian Life on Saturday.

“It feels great. I love watching it, I love doing it,” said quarterback Aidan Cooper, who had a blocked punt in the second half and had a hand in four of the Hawks’ seven touchdowns. “It’s amazing.”

The Hawks (5-2) led 14-6 heading into the second. Mason Alm blocked a punt and the offense took over at the Christian Life 27. Cooper scrambled for 21 on the first play, then three plays later found the end zone from 7 out to push the lead to 22-6.

The defense picked up a three-and-out and a 3-yard punt led to a short field for the Hawks. Cooper ran in from 25 yards for another score.

“It’s everything you can ask for, everything you coach for, all in one game,” Hiawatha coach Kenny McPeek said. “It’s nice to see.”

Alex Panzer recovered a fumble on the second play of the next drive for the Eagles (2-5). After a couple of holding calls the Hawks faced a second and 31 but Cooper completed passes to Colby Wylde and Michael Hobson to get the first, then Kamden Rasmus put a nifty move on a defender on a 1-yard scoring run, pushing the lead to 36-8.

The Eagles seemed set to score at the end of the half, but Fred Swain fumbled at the goal line and Wylde recovered.

A 6-yard run by Pruitt in the third started the running clock.

“I think we have very short memories, so when we make mistakes, we’re really good at moving on,” Pruitt said.

Christian Life changed some things up since the Hawks’ 60-6 win in Week 4. Lineman Blake Allen spent most of the game at quarterback and Ethan Vistine, QB last time around, was at receiver.

On the second play of the game, they hooked up for a 41-yard catch and run into the red zone, leading to Allen scoring on a 4-yard sneak to put the Eagles up 6-0.

Hiawatha failed to convert a fourth and 1 from the Eagles’ 8 on the ensuing drive, but tied things up on a 24-yard run by Pruitt and took the lead on a 42-yard bomb from Cooper to Rasmus.

“They just thought we’d kind of go out there and roll over them,” McPeek said. “They showed us some new things, didn’t use that quarterback last time, didn’t use that Vistine kid as a receiver last time. And I told them that would happen, and sure enough, second play they threw it deep. But after that we put our feet in the ground.”

Pruitt ran for 93 yards and a pair of scores, Cooper ran for 70 yards and three scores. He also threw for 150 yards and a TD but was also intercepted in the second half. Wylde had five catches for 76 yards.

The Eagles had 9 rushing yards in the loss and 101 passing yards.

The win guarantees the Hawks their first winning regular season since 2022 and likely puts them in the I8FA playoffs after missing out last year.

“It wasn’t really on my mind the whole season, but it feels nice,” Pruitt said. “Most wins in a few years, last time in the playoffs was a couple years ago too. So it feels good.”