ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF
Goblins and spirits may be to blame for the bad breaks and mistakes that plagued the Hillsboro High School football team during their bi-district championship game played on Halloween night.
Then again it may simply be that Riley County made the big plays at the right time and Hillsboro didn’t. At any rate, the Trojan’s season ended Tuesday night when Riley beat Hillsboro 24-12 at Reimer Field.
The Falcons scored first, six plays after Brian Wurtz intercepted a Ronn Coates pass on the Trojans’ second offensive play of the game. Falcon quarterback Jordy Nelson hit his brother Mike with a three-yard touchdown pass with 3:21 left in the first period to take a 6-0 lead. The 2-pt. conversion failed.
The Falcons struck again in the second quarter when the Nelson brothers hooked up again, this time from four yards out on a 4th-and-goal play from the 4-yard line. Again, the conversion play failed.
Hillsboro crawled back within six, scoring sven plays after Carson Greenhaw recovered a Falcon fumble at the Riley County 48. The score came on a 20-yard pass from Coates to Layne Frick in the end zone with 4:34 left in the half.
But the Falcons took the ensuing kickoff and drive the ball for a first-and-goal on the Trojan 10. Thanks to a couple of penalities and some strong Trojan defense, Riley faced a fourth-and-goal from the 16, but scored on a lateral pass from the QB to the end and then back to the QB, who ran in the touchdown to stake the Falcons to an 18-6 lead with only 44 seconds left in the half.
Riley lengethened the lead to 24-6, scoring on a third-and-28 pass play from Nelson to Weston Steiner with 9:42 left in third quarter.
Hillsboro added a touchdown on a pass from Dustin Jost to Frick from 8 yards out with 6:14 to play, but it was too little too late for Hillsboro, who finished its season with a solid 7-3 record.
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Trojan football season ends with bi-district loss
