Ishmael Morris scored three first-half touchdowns to pace the Hillsboro Trojans to a 35-7 win at Lyons on Friday night (Sept. 26).
Daniel Jost actually started the scoring deluge for Hillsboro when quarterback Jacob Fish hit him in perfect stride on a long pass down the Lyons sideline. The 38-yard play came with 9:39 left in the opening quarter. When Jacob Wiebe kicked the first of five extra points for the night, Hillsboro led 7-0.
On the next Lyons possession, quarterback Jake Craig appeared to score on a 46-yard keeper, but a chop-block penalty nullified the touchdown. The Trojans then held the Lyons out of the end zone and took over on their own 16-yard line following a missed Lyons field-goal attempt on fourth down.
Twelve plays later, Morris was in the end zone for the first time, scoring on a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line with 1:31 left in the first quarter. Morris’s 41-yard run midway through the drive was the key play.
After forcing a Lyons point, the Trojans scored again on a 51-yard, four-play drive with 9:41 to go in the second quarter. Morris crossed the goal line from 13 yards out, sprung by a great lead block by fullback Tyler Jones.
Leading 21-0, the Trojans forced Lyons into a three-and-out, and then took advantage of a bad Lions punt to set up a two-play, 26-yard score. This time Morris caught a pass from Fish coming out into the right flat and scored easily when Jost threw a great block near the goal line.
The Trojans nearly scored a fifth touchdown in the closing seconds of the half when Jost made a leaping catch of a Fish pass in the end zone. But the officials ruled Jost was out of bounds when he came down with the ball.
It appeared likely that the Trojans would add a fifth touchdown early in second half and the game would end early when continuous-clock rule would come into effect. But neither team was able to put points on the board until Fish capped an 14-play, 77-yard, grind-it-out-on-the-ground drive with a quarterback sneak from a half-yard out with 7:24 left in the final period.
That got the clock moving, but Lyons managed a 61-yard scoring drive to put points on the board on a 5-yard run by Brandon Harmony with 2:15 left on the clock. A successful kick accounted for the final 35-7 margin.
The win boosted Hillsboro’s record to 3-1 and ended the Trojans’ four-game road tour to start the season. Hillsboro will play its first home game next Friday against winless Sterling (0-4), who lost to Marion 14-7 on Friday.
