Trojan TD pass punches out Black Bears, 34-7

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF
In a game where Hillsboro had made a night of throwing short body punches, it was the big right hook that ultimately knocked out Sterling during the Trojans’ season-opening 34-7 win Friday night at Tabor Field.


Backup quarterback Dustin Jost’s long pass to wide receiver Layne Frick down the right sideline came out of the blue with 5:47 left in the first half. The 68-yard score gave Hillsboro a 21-7 lead and broke open what had been a tight contest between two MCAA Mid Division foes.


Prior to that call, 21 of the Trojans’ 22 offensive plays were punches to the gut of the Sterling defensive line on runs by seniors Ross Duerksen and Phillip Terrell with a few blows from juniors Alan Yoder and Kris Jones.


The strategy had staked Hillsboro to a 14-7 lead, but this young Sterling squad-12 sophomores started-still looked formidable against the favored Trojans.


Hillsboro had scored first on a one-yard dive by Terrell with 5:11 left in the first quarter. The Trojans took the opening kickoff and marched-almost exclusively on the legs of Duerksen-from its own 31-yard line to the Black Bear 35 before stalling out. Adam Woods’ pooch punt backed Sterling to its own 7-yard line.


Two plays later, quarterback Travis Cook fumbled and James Bina recovered for Hillsboro on the 7. Terrell scored three plays later. Bina’s extra-point kick was blocked, so the lead stayed at 6-0.


Sterling struck back with a haymaker of its own. On the first play after the kickoff, Black Bear tailback Derek Schneider stepped practically untouched through the Trojan front wall and raced 73 yards for the score. The PAT kick gave Sterling a 7-6 lead.


After the two teams traded possessions, Hillsboro took over on its own 29-yard line with nine seconds left in the opening quarter.


With Jost getting his first chance to direct the offense, the Trojans scored seven plays later on a 24-yard scamper down the left sideline by Yoder. Jost’s two-point-conversion pass to Steven Chisholm made the score 14-7 with 9:07 left in the first half.


In the driver’s seat with a 21-7 lead at intermission, Hillsboro added two scores in the second half. The first came when Ronnie Davis, the Trojans’ 5-8, 248-pound senior noseguard, picked up a Dallas Schnurr fumble on the second play of the third quarter and rumbled 44 yards for the touchdown.


The Trojans’ final score came late in the game when Duerksen took the handoff from Jost and ran the ball in from seven yards out. The play capped the Trojans’ most impressive drive of the night, which started from their own 31-yard line at the 6:40 mark of the final quarter and ended 12 plays later with a meager 41 seconds left to play.


Duerksen finished as the Trojans’ rushing leader with 70 yards on 15 carries. As a team, Hillsboro rolled up 182 yards on 41 carries.


Quarterbacks Ronn Coates and Jost each were 2-for-4 throwing the ball and finished with 34 and 82 yards, respectively. Frick caught three of those passes for 102 yards.


“Both quarterbacks played well while they were in there,” said coach Dustin McEwen. “We’ve got a lot of talent at running back, and a lot of guys carried the ball tonight.”


The Trojan coach said he backed away from throwing the ball much because the ground game gave the Trojans a solid lead.


Hillsboro’s defense, meanwhile, was formidable, especially in the first half. Minus Schneider’s 73-yard burst, Sterling managed only 100 rushing yards on 35 carries and only 29 yards through the air on 5-of-7 passing.


“The drives we gave up in the second half were the things we weren’t impressed with,” McEwen said. “The defense, other than the one play, in the first half was great.


“Lots of things pleased me,” McEwen said of his team’s first effort. “I didn’t think we came out too nervous. We came out and played under control.”


The Trojans will try for their second win of the season when they host Halstead on Friday. Game time is 7 p.m.

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