ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DR
Moral victories don’t count for much statistically, but the Hillsboro Trojans outplayed fifth-ranked Hesston in the second half Friday night at Reimer Field.
Unfortunately, Hillsboro’s play wasn’t quite good enough to pull itself out of a deep first-half hole, and Hesston prevailed 26-12 in district play.
Hesston scored four plays after Andy Bartell intercepted a Dustin Jost with 7:11 left in the opening quarter. The Swathers’ standout running back Brian Roulhac ran the ball in from 7 yards out to give Hesston a 7-0 lead with 5:16 to play after Brian Schultz kicked the PAT.
Hesston scored again on its next possession when Jason Pomeroy broke through the Trojan defense for a 66-yard touchdown run with 1:37 left in the quarter. Schultz’s PAT made it 14-0.
The Swathers scored again, this time on the first play of the second quarter, after their defense partially blocked a Caleb Marsh punt on HIllsboro’s ensuing possession. This time the PAT was no good, but the score was 20-0.
Netther team again scored before intermission.
Hillsboro could have easily laid down in the second half, but didn’t. The Trojans came back with a 19-yard touchdown pass from Jost to Kris Jones with 7:56 to go in the third quarter to make the score 20-6. The pass for the 2-point conversion was incomplete.
In the fourth quarter, Hillsboro scored again, this time on a 2-yard run by Alan Yoder with 8:09 to play to pull Hillsboro to within a touchdown at 20-12. A bad snap on the PAT resulted in an incomplete pass by Marsh.
Hesston then took the kickoff and drove to the Trojan 5-yard line late in the quarter. The Trojans stopped the Swathers on four plays — including the final two running plays within a half yard of the goal line.
Hillsboro had the ball with 2:15 to play, but couldn’t get the first down, and finally turned the ball back over to Hesston on the Hillsboro 3-yard line with 1:24 to go. Pomeroy scored on the next play to account for the final margin.
With the loss Hillsboro drops to 4-4 overall and 1-1 in district play. The Trojans can still move on in the playoffs if they beat winless Halstead on Thursday.
Hesston hangs on to beat Hillsboro
