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Second half dooms Tribe; Washington wins 28-27

Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com

The Hillsboro Indians provided many fireworks in the first half during a soggy game at Richards Memorial Field, but all the sparks in the first half fizzled away in the final 24 minutes as the Washington Blue Lions raided the Tribe’s homecoming, defeating the Indians by one point, 28-27 Friday night in Hillsboro.

            Not much went the way of the Indians in the second half, and a blocked extra point proved to show the difference on the scoreboard, but Hillsboro head coach Brian Spicer said his team had no excuses for their performance after halftime.

            “We played terrible in the second half and I don’t understand why,” Spicer said. “Maybe we burned ourselves out. We came out in the second half and basically nothing goes right. Washington fought for the win.”

            The Indians led 27-21 after two quarters, but the Washington defense and special teams proved to be the overriding factor in the mud-soaked South Central Ohio League battle.

            “We’ve been preaching to the kids that they can’t quit,” First-year Washington head coach Corey Dye said. “We could have hung our heads when they scored to take the lead, but the kids didn’t quit and came out and blocked the extra point.”

            The blocked PAT came with 2:02 left in the first half after Hillsboro junior quarterback Aric Carroll broke a 21-21 tied game with a 1-yard keeper, through the middle of the goaline defense by the Blue Lions, for the 27-21 advantage. In the TD drive Hillsboro senior Dawson Barreras had a 42-yard reception.

            But the mistakes in the final half caused the most trouble for the Indians.

The high-scoring Hillsboro team of the first half ran into struggling times in the second half with their first possession ending in a punt, followed with their next possession ending in a turnover, via fumble recovered by Washington senior Logan Rankin at the HHS 17-yard line, with 8:27 left in the third quarter.

The fumble recovered by Rankin allowed the Blue Lions (2-0, 4-1) to tie the game, and then take the lead, as the Blue Lions scored in three plays with Washington junior quarterback Collin Farmer taking the ball to the end zone on a 1-yard TD run at the 7:48 mark of the third. The PAT, which proved to be the winning point, was converted by sophomore Justin Hall.

“Our kicker came up big for us in the game,” Dye said. “He made all his extra points.”

HHS had chances in the second half, forcing a fumble in the fourth quarter with 4:24 remaining, but ended up having to punt on fourth-and-16.

The Tribe had one final opportunity to take the lead, regaining possession of the ball with 53.5 seconds in the fourth quarter, on their 29-yard line.

On first down Washington was penalized for pass interference. Carroll then connected with an 11-yard pass to the Washington 45-yard line. Carroll was unofficially 7 of 11 for 108 yards passing.

On the next play Carroll found Barreras for 10 yards.

But two plays later, Washington junior Patrick Wilson intercepted the pass near the Washington sideline with 9.4 seconds left in regulation to seal the win.

“We got into a situation to run the football in the second half and we just prayed we could hold onto the football,” Dye said. “We didn’t quit, our offensive line blocked and we ran the ball.

“I couldn’t have asked for better defensive play than what we had in the second half. We are a second half team and our kids are tough.”

Things were different for the Indians in the first half, scoring on their first three possessions to take a 21-7 lead.

HHS came out in the first half, dominating the first 6:58 of the game.

The Hillsboro defense set the tone early on with an interception on the third play of the game with Barreras grabbing the ball in mid-air at the Washington 16-yard line, on a third-and-10 play.

The HHS offense scored their first TD of the game, after Airic Steagall busted into the end zone with a 1-yard run for the score, on fourth-and-goal, on his third carry of the drive.

After the kickoff and two offensive plays later the Blue Lions tied the game at 7-7 with a 51-yard touchdown run by junior running back Ben Parks on second-and-8. The PAT by Hall tied the game.

HHS continued to put pressure on the Blue Lions, regaining the lead on the ensuing kickoff when junior Mason Hunick took the ball 80 yards, breaking tackles and following his blockers for the score. The score was 13-7 after Washington prevented the PAT.

The Tribe defense forced another turnover on the next possession as senior Jevin Stodgel picked off a Farmer pass at the 50-yard line on a third down play.

HHS added to their lead on their next drive, moving downfield on a third-and-15 completion to Barreras for a first down. Barreras caught another pass (5 yards) on a second down.

On second and goal, from the 4-yard line, Steagall scored his second red zone touchdown at the 9:29 mark of the second quarter. Carroll found the end zone, on a fake handoff to Hunick, increasing the HHS lead to 21-7 with the converted 2-point conversion.

            The Blue Lions made the score 21-14 in just six plays as Farmer passed to Wilson with 6:53 left in the first half for a touchdown. In the drive Parks had a 14-yard carry, recovering his own fumble during the previous play.

            Washington recovered a fumble with 6:11 left in the second quarter on the Hillsboro 43-yard line.

            Three plays later the combination of Farmer to Parks reached pay dirt with a 35-yard pass and touchdown. Parks battled for the score, breaking multiple tackles to reach the end zone. Parks finished with over 100 yards rushing.

            In the second quarter Hunick had an interception with 46.6 remaining.

            With the win the Blue Lions jump to 4-1 overall, 2-0 in league play. The victory was Washington’s fourth straight win. WSHS will travel to take on the McClain Tigers at McClain Field next week. MHS dropped their second league game Friday night, falling to the Madison-Plains Golden Eagles 7-6. WSHS defeated M-P in week four 7-3.

            The second consecutive loss drops HHS to 3-2 overall, 0-2 in the SCOL. HHS will take on Blanchester in their first away game since week three.

 

SCORE BY QUARTERS

WSHS – 7 14 7 0 - 28

HHS – 13 14 0 0 - 27

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