VERMILLION – A group of decorated multi-sport athletes added to impressive resumes Thursday night.

Hamlin received major contributions from a variety of players on the way to winning the Class 9AA state football championship with a dominating 32-8 win over Parkston in a match up of unbeaten teams at the DakotaDome.

The state title comes on the heels of winning the State A basketball championship last winter, a team that shares many of the same athletes with the football squad.

“Our whole thing was, give it everything you’ve got. That’s what we did today,” said Hamlin senior Evan Stormo who rushed for a touchdown, had 80 yards receiving, led the team with 11 tackles, and intercepted a pass. “We just gave everything on every single play.”

Outside of a kickoff return for a touchdown, Parkston was unable to mount any sustained offense throughout the contest.

“This was definitely our best team win. This was our best performance,” said Hamlin junior Jackson Wadsworth. “We played basically a perfect game outside of that kickoff.”

The Chargers were able to pass the ball effectively the entire night as Wadsworth finished with 216 yards passing and a touchdown on the way to winning the Joe Robbie MVP and Outstanding Back awards. Wadsworth found multiple receivers who used their speed and athleticism to shred the Parkston defense.

“He’s trusted them all year,” said Hamlin coach Jeff Sheehan. “You don’t have a 75 percent completion percentage on the year by just holding the ball and throwing it to one guy.”

The Chargers were well prepared heading into the contest against the defending state champion Trojans.

“When you win 23 games you don’t change a lot. When you win 23 in a row you don’t change a lot schematically. You do what you do,” Sheehan said. “They did what they did and we found a way to pick it a part and make it work the way we wanted to. We took the shots when we needed to.”

Wadsworth set the tone from the opening drive, completing his first five passes as the Chargers took the opening kick and drove straight down the field for a touchdown. He continued to find open receivers the whole game.

“I just look at their defense before,” Wadsworth said, “get one or two reads where I like the matchup and then trust my reads, and then throw where I want to go to.”

Pretty impressive considering the fact that he suffered a dislocated shoulder in the first quarter of last week’s semifinal and missed most of the contest.

“I went to the hospital,” Wadsworth said. “I was watching the game on my phone.”

On this night, Wadsworth had a front row seat watching the Chargers find the end zone four times (Turner Stevenson ran for two scores and Boden Stevenson caught a TD pass from Wadsworth in addition to the Stormo score), and a defensive effort that kept Parkston standout running back Kolter Kramer in check.

“We kind of knew that he was their go-to guy,” said Hamlin senior Dawson Noem who was selected the game’s Outstanding Lineman. “That was pretty much the thing that we needed to shut down and we executed.”

Leading 22-8, the Chargers got an extra boost heading into the half when senior Easton Neuendorf nailed a 45-yard field to set a new Class AA championship game record. The kick had just enough distance to clear the cross bar.

“When I kicked and I was watching it, I was like, oh it’s gonna hit the post, it’s gonna hit the post,” Neuendorf said, “and then it just went in and I was like alright, here we go.”

Interestingly enough, this is only the second year of football for the standout basketball player.

“It’s been fun,” Neuendorf said. “Without my friends and being here in Hamlin, I wouldn’t be out for football at all.”

While the Chargers owned the halftime lead, Neuendorf had a message for his teammates during the break.

“I told the team when we come out of halftime …. this happened to us in the state basketball tournament where we got up, they came back,” Neuendorf said. “Same thing last week against Elkton, we were up at halftime, they came back, and I was like alright, we gotta come out strong. We can’t let them get momentum. We just have to go.”

There was no need to worry about that, as the Chargers picked up right where they left off it the opening half to put the finishing touches on their perfect season.

Noem recalled all of the hard work put in during long hot days in practice to prepare for this occasion.

“We’ve been working our butts off every day. … This was our goal from day one,” Noem said. “We knew when we were running up and down the field every day, this was what we had in mind, so we were ready.”

Of course, it helps when the roster is loaded with some of the state’s premier athletes.

“We have Zac VanMeeteren who’s just got that 6-6 height and that track speed, nobody can guard him,” Stormo said, “and then we have some quick guys like Mason Trowbridge, Easton Neuendorf and Turner Stevenson.”

And now, the Chargers also have the longest current winning streak in 9AA football.

“We’re up to 12,” Sheehan said. “That’s a win for us.”

Hamlin (12-0) 7 18 7 0 – 32

Parkston (11-1) 8 0 0 0 – 8

First Quarter

H – Evan Stormo 1 run (Easton Neuendorf kick), 7:59.

P – Kolter Kramer 97 kickoff return (Gage Reichert run), 7:45.

Second Quarter

H – Turner Stevenson 7 run (Zac VanMeetern pass from Jackson Wadsworth), 9:37.

H – Stevenson 3 run (Neuendorf kick), 1:49.

H – Neuendorf 45 field goal, 0:00.

Third Quarter

H – Boden Stevenson 12 pass from Wadsworth (Neuendorf kick), 5:06.

OFFENSE: Hamlin, rushing 33-114 (T. Stevenson 14-57, VanMeeteren 3-27, Mason Trowbridge 7-25, Stormo 5-15), passing 17-24-0 for 216 (Wadsworth 17-22-0 for 216), receiving (Stormo 7-80, B. Stevenson 3-61, Neuendorf 3-30, VanMeeteren 2-18), first downs 19; Parkston, rushing 33-90 (Kramer 13-46, Reichert 5-21, Kaden Holzbauer 5-18, Mason Jervik 5-8), passing 9-15-1 for 63 (Brycen Bruening 8-13-1 for 48, Carter Sommer 1-2-0 for 15), receiving (Jervik 3-22, Elliott Leischner 1-15, Holzbauer 3-10, Kramer 1-8), first downs 8.

DEFENSE: Hamlin, Stormo 11 tackles and 1 interception, Aiden Abraham 7 tackles and 1 sack, T. Stevenson 7 tackles, B. Stevenson 6 tackles; Parkston, Kramer 15 tackles, Jervik 10 tackles, Wyatt Anderson 9 tackles, Gage Jodozi 7 tackles.