Gabe Timmons never played organized tackle football prior to Friday night.

The Hannan basketball player dabbled in flag football years ago and had an early introduction to the sport during the Hawks’ preseason games over the past few weeks. But the season opener against rival Northlake Christian was his official debut to the varsity gridiron on Sept. 5.

Call it beginner’s luck or the birth of a full-fledged football career, nothing about Timmons’ performance looked like a rookie.

Not only did the fresh-faced junior defensive lineman come up with a pair of tackles for loss, but he made arguably the play of the game when he used his basketball skills to swat down a 2-point conversion attempt that would have tied the game with under nine minutes to play.

As it stood, the crucial defensive

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