Hillsboro took a double dose of motivation into its game against Festus on Friday night.
First, of course, is the longstanding rivalry between the schools, who have tussled many times for the championship of the Mississippi Area Football Conference Red Division. But the Hawks also were carrying an uncharacteristic 0-3 record – their worst start to a season since 2009, when they finished 1-9 – and wanted nothing more than to get rid of that goose egg in front of their home crowd.
Five different players ran for touchdowns, from close range and long distance, as Hillsboro beat Festus 39-14, the Hawks’ fifth victory in a row over the Tigers and the sixth in the last seven years.
“They had reached their breaking point in getting pushed around,”
Hillsboro head coach Lee Freeman said of his team. “They’d had enough of that. I’m real proud of the effort of our boys tonight. Tonight was a great winning experience for everybody, coaches included, players, fans.
“That resiliency you talk about, it’s very hard to represent that, and our kids have been able to do that. They are rock-steady.”
Hillsboro got down to business quickly, stopping the Festus offense on four downs to start the game. Festus downed its punt at the Hillsboro 14-yard line and three plays later, Hawk senior quarterback Austin Perez broke through up the middle and zipped 81 yards to pay dirt less than four minutes into the contest. The two-point run attempt failed.
“It felt good,” Perez said of his long jaunt. “I owe that to my linemen. I just saw the open hole and made one cut and took off.”
The Tigers countered late in the second quarter when senior fullback Jack Robinson plowed three yards for a touchdown to cap a 47-yard drive. Ryan Esparza booted the extra point for the only lead Festus would have all night at 7-6.
With a little more than two minutes left before halftime, Hillsboro regained the lead on a seven-play, 55-yard drive culminating in senior Tyler Sizemore’s two-yard TD plunge. Freshman back Jaxin Patterson tacked on the two-point conversion run for a 14-7 Hawk advantage at the half.
Patterson scored from eight yards out at 8:18 of the third quarter after Hillsboro took the second-half kickoff and marched 56 yards in eight plays, with Patterson running on six of them. Junior Cody Smith scored on a 2-yard run at 2:11 of the third.
Festus QB Collin Doyel, a junior, briefly revived Tiger hopes with a 74-yard touchdown sprint just before the end of the third, but Hillsboro slammed the door shut on the visitors with two fourth-quarter scores on runs by Austin Romaine, another frosh (47 yards), and senior Dominic Crady (10 yards).
Sophomore fullback John Bennett, who does a lot of lead blocking for the Hawk runners, got the ball himself a number of times to diversify the attack, which never needed to throw a pass.
“It’s just so great; all the weight is off our shoulders,” Bennett said. “We were just telling each other, this has got to be our night to turn things around for our team. We were 0-3.We had to turn things around.”
As prolific as Hillsboro’s offense was, the defense did its job as well, holding Festus to 149 yards on the ground and two incomplete passes.
“They had their backs up against the wall coming into the game tonight and they responded very well, as I would expect them to,” Festus head coach Russ Schmidt said. “The things they did were the things we coached our kids to prepare for, and they out-executed us in all phases of the football game tonight.”
Festus dropped to 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the MAFC Red. Hillsboro is 1-0 in conference play. The Tigers host De Soto (2-2 and 2-0 in conference) Friday while Hillsboro travels to Windsor (2-2, 0-1).
Late pick seals victory
Sometimes when conference rivals square off, the intensity of the action leads to a lot of penalties.
That was the case when Jefferson visited St. Pius X on Friday in an I-55 Conference game in which 20 flags were thrown against both squads.
The most egregious of the errors came in the second quarter when Lancer wide receiver Riley Naeger’s 61-yard touchdown catch was negated by his team’s second holding call in as many plays.
Jefferson led 7-0 at the time. However, St. Pius scored on its last possession of the first half and added another touchdown in the fourth quarter to hold on for a 13-7 victory.
Lancer head coach Dan Oliver served a one-game suspension after being ejected the previous week in a win at Grandview.
In three-plus decades of coaching football, it was the first time Oliver said he was suspended for a game.
“It was a difference of opinions. I don’t want to talk about it,” he said about the reason for his ejection in a game the Lancers won 35-6.
Led by defensive end Patrick Argana, St. Pius (3-1) held Jefferson’s offense to 122 total yards. Argana got plenty of push into the Blue Jays’ backfield. The Lancers’ first defensive turnover of the season helped wrap up the win.
Trailing by six points late in the game, Jefferson quarterback Colton Richardson launched a pass down the sideline to Colby Ott, but all 6-6 of Naeger playing safety made a one-handed interception to give St. Pius the ball back with 2:15 to play.
After the turnover, Jefferson still had a pair of timeouts so the Lancers needed to move the chains to run out the clock. On third-and-6, St. Pius quarterback Carson Fischer found the corner for a 7-yard gain. Rouggly had to burn his last timeout.
“Our lines were great. We were getting off the ball,” Fischer said. “I didn’t have to throw the ball. We ran it. We allowed seven points. That’s what we wanted. I love my team. We were disciplined.”
On the game’s opening drive, the Lancers used 13 plays to move inside the red zone. They converted three third downs, but on fourth-and-6, the Blue Jays forced a turnover on downs at their own 10. Jefferson’s first series went nowhere and Will Schnitzler punted from his goal line. The ball made it to midfield but Josh Ruble returned it 20 yards. Starting at the 30, St. Pius was in good shape to score, but on fourth-and-11, Fischer was sacked for a 7-yard loss by Steve Stephens, who registered three sacks the week before against Herculaneum.
A fumble recovery by defensive lineman Ethan Deal at the Lancers’ 14 led to the game’s first score. Schnitzler ran the ball to the 1 on the first play of the drive, but it took four more snaps to get across the goal line. Jefferson almost lost the ball on a fumbled exchange between Richardson and a running back, but he stretched the ball over the goal line on fourth-and-goal with 5:43 left in the half. Will Breeze kicked the extra point to give the Blue Jays a 7-0 lead.
Just when it looked like St. Pius would be shut out in the first half, Fischer fired a 59-yard scoring strike to Josh Ruble in the seam of the Blue Jays defense with 17 seconds left. Logan Jacobson booted the PAT to tie the game 7-7.
Nate Ruble tipped a pass by Richardson to stop Jefferson’s second series of the third quarter and after another Schnitzler punt, the Lancers took over at their 44. It took 14 plays and 7:56 to cover 56 yards to take the lead. Both coaches turned down short field goal attempts more than once to try and pound the ball into the end zone. On fourth-and-goal from the 3, Noah Lampros scored the game-winning TD with 8:28 left in the game. The two-point conversion failed.
Owls drop second straight
Derek Williams makes Windsor run.
But a Williams run in the third quarter against Park Hills Central led to a sprained ankle that sidelined him for the rest of Friday’s 33-21 loss.
It’s unclear how much time, if any, the quarterback might miss. The junior is off to a great start this season and is one of the most dynamic football players in the county.
“Hopefully, I’ll be back next week. It’s going to be sore for a couple days,” Williams said while lying on the trainer’s table on his sideline moments after the hastily-scheduled game against the Rebels ended. “I got stuck under the pile and it got smashed.”
Despite the injury, Williams led the Owls with 111 yards on 13 carries. His 29-yard touchdown run with 7:11 to go in the third cut Park Hills’ lead to 27-21. But that was short-lived as senior running back Gage Manion somehow turned a bad snap and loss of yardage into a 14-yard scoring run a few minutes later to go ahead by two scores again. It was one of his three TDs.
After searching in vain to find a homecoming opponent after Lift for Life Academy backed out, it was announced at last week’s Windsor C-1 Board of Education meeting that Park Hills Central agreed to play the Owls. The Rebels were left high and dry by Confluence Academy in their previously scheduled game last week.
Windsor started 2-0 and dropped its second game in a row. Park Hills Central has won two straight after starting 0-2.
“Park Hills should be proud of the way they play football,” Windsor head coach Alex DeMatteis said. “They play hard and fast and they have a good football program. We battled them hard and I’m proud of our boys.”
Senior Kaelen Gmerek was told over the summer he’d be backing up Williams. On Gmerek’s first series after Williams was hurt, he had a long run inside the Rebels’ 10, but the gain was called back for a holding penalty.
“Derek’s a great player and we all know that, but we’ve got some guys who are committed to backing him up,” DeMatteis said. “If he happens to be out for a long period of time, we’ll have to adjust our schemes. We don’t know how bad it is, but we’ll get our kids in the right spot and continue on.
“Kaelen’s a great kid. We came to him at the beginning of the summer and asked him to be the backup quarterback and he’d never done that before. He’s always been a running back and I’m proud of him for stepping in.”
Manion was a thorn in the Owls’ talon one more time when he recovered a fumble by senior receiver Gabe Larkin after Larkin had gained 23 yards. Park Hills Central picked up three first downs on their next series and ran out the clock.
Running back Chris Butts gained 59 yards on 12 carries for Windsor. Williams completed 5 of 8 for 31 yards. Seif Elkhashab had a blocked PAT and Butts had a fumble recovery. Austin Henry had seven tackles to lead the Owls.
Dragons win second straight
De Soto improved to 2-0 in the Mississippi Area Football Conference Red Division with a 17-16 home win against North County on Friday.
The Dragons beat Windsor the week before and are now 2-2 after dropping their first two games. They are in first place in the MAFC Red and visit conference rival Festus (2-2, 1-1) on Friday.
Junior Will Rector led the De Soto defense with 10 solo tackles, seven assists, two sacks and a fumble recovery.
A disruptive Dragon defense kept the Raiders on their heels. Junior Ethan Reissing had two interceptions and senior linebacker Jacob Kerbler two of De Soto’s six sacks.
Quarterback Briar Fischer completed 7-of-22 passes for 173 yards and a touchdown, but Fischer also tossed two interceptions. Junior receiver John Whited caught three of Fischer’s passes for 93 yards. Fischer led all De Soto rushers with 41 yards.
The Dragons scoring came from a Fischer to Whited 58-yard TD pass, senior Garrett Hardin’s 12-yard run and a 32-yard field goal by Bradley Hunt, who made both PATs.