Hillsboro plays even with the Spartans early, but in the end Collegiate took control
When Hillsboro scored its first touchdown in the first minute of the second quarter of its game against Wichita Collegiate on Friday, it appeared the two teams might be in for another classic battle in their long rivalry.
Unfortunately, Hillsboro simply didn't have the horses on this night to sustain its strong start and fell to the Spartans 24-7.
Eating up half of the first quarter, Collegiate took the opening kickoff and marched 76 yards on 13 plays to go up 7-0 with 6:03 left.
Hillsboro turned around and marched from its own 30 to the Collegiate 16 before stalling. But the Trojan defense, aided by two Collegiate false starts, forced the Spartans to punt into a strong south wind from their own 6-yard.
Hillsboro took possession at the Spartan 24 and scored five plays later when Spencer Brown hit Brett McIntosh for an 8-yard TD pass with 10:58 left in the second quarter.
But Collegiate came tight back with another prolonged drive, this time of 72 yards in 11 plays and scored on a 29-yard pass from Joseph Houlik to Clint Cornejo with 5:27 left in the half to take a 14-7 lead, which lasted into halftime.
The back-breaker came after the two teams had swapped short possessions to start the third quarter. Collegiate, taking advantage of a short HHS punt into the wind, took possession again, this time from the Spartan 47. HHS stopped Collegiate at the Trojan 32-yard line, but kicker Conner Anderson drilled the football into the jet stream and nailed a 49-yard field goal with plenty of distance to spare to boost the lead to 17-7 with 1:54 left in the third period.
Already struggling to move the ball consistently against the Spartans by that time, the Trojans seemed to tire, mentally and physically, at that point. Collegiate added a third TD with 7 minutes left in the game to push the final margin to 24-7.
The loss dropped Hillsboro to 2-1 in the league and for the season, while Collegiate improved its season and league records to 2-1.
