Big plays ignite 42-0 Hillsboro homecoming win

HHSfbRemingtonDavidson1

HHSfbRemingtonDavidson1

Playmaker Shaq Thiessen turned a big mistake into the big break Hillsboro needed to deflate an inspired Remington team Friday night as the Trojans rolled to a 42-0 homecoming victory for their sixth straight win of the season.

Playing like anything but a winless team, the 0-5 Broncos used the inspired running of Kyle Regier to keep Hillsboro at bay for almost the entire first half.

Twice the Trojans stopped extended Bronco drives in the red zone, once on the opening possession when Remington drove to the Trojan 6-yard line before a holding penalty eventually led to a missed 32-yard field goal attempt.

In the second quarter, Remington drove to the Trojan 16 early before quarterback Hunter Hill fumbled and Cody Delk recovered the ball for Hillsboro at the 12.

The Trojans, meanwhile, shot themselves in the foot on their first two possessions?first by losing a fumble in Bronco territory, then by throwing an interception.

?You could tell (the Broncos) were just trying to run the clock,? coach Lance Sawyer said. ?We shot ourselves in the foot with a couple of turnovers there and couldn?t put points on the board. But our kids kept playing.?

On their third possession, the Trojans drove to the Remington 27. But a bad center snap on third down sailed over the head of quarterback Tyler Proffitt, who fell on the ball at the 41-yard line.

Thiessen then came in to punt, but the center snap sailed high once again. Thiessen managed to tip the ball, then picked it up off the ground and took off for daylight. Forty-one yards later he was in the end zone for the first score of the night. Jesse Brown?s kick made it 7-0 with only 1:22 left in the half.

?We had no intent to fake that punt,? Sawyer said. ?A player made a play?that?s a statement for this whole team. Players are making plays. They?re athletes. You can?t coach that.?

Hillsboro wasn?t done yet. Rather than let the clock run out, Sawyer sensed his team could score again if it could stop the Broncos in three plays. They did, and Sawyer was right.

With the help of two timeouts during Remington?s possession, Hillsboro got the ball back after an out-of-bounds punt on the Bronco 45-yard line with 22.8 seconds left.

Proffitt then connected with Tyrell Thiessen on a pass that put the ball at the 21-yard line. From there, Proffitt lofted a pass into the corner of the end zone where receiver Evan Ollen?burger hauled it in as time ran out. Brown?s kick made it 14-0 as the two teams headed for their respective locker rooms.

Hillsboro?s total time of possession in the first half was 5:45.

The late scoring burst seemed to break the Broncos? spirit in the second half. Hillsboro wasted no time making sure of that, taking the second-half kickoff to its 47-yard line, then scoring in four plays when Tyrell Thiessen ran in from 34 yards out. Brown?s kick made it 21-0 with 10:41 left in the third quarter.

Tyrell Thiessen added his second touchdown with 7:01 left in the quarter when he scored on a nine-yard swing pass from Proffitt. Brown kicked the fourth of six extra points to make 28-0.

Hillsboro?s defense started the fourth quarter by making another huge play in the red-zone when Nathan Unruh recovered a Regier fumble at the Trojan 5-yard line to short-circuit a Bronco drive.

Five plays and one personal-foul penalty later, the Trojans were in the end zone again, this time on a 1-yard run by Proffitt that was set up by a 25-yard pass to Shaq Thiessen and a 41-yard run by Tyrell Thiessen on consecutive plays.

With the running clock engaged with Hillsboro?s 35-point lead, Trojan linebacker Josh Davidson snagged a Regier pass and ran the ball some 35 yards to the Bronco 5-yard line. Proffitt then ran in for the score on the next play and Brown added his final extra point of the night for a 42-0 margin with 5:05 to play.

?Once we learned we could score, we did a pretty good job of it,? Sawyer said. ?Our defense really stepped up.?

Hillsboro had its best game this year on the ground, rolling up 282 yards on only 23 carries. Tyrell Thiessen accounted for 107 of those yards on eight carries and brother Shaq added 101 yards on two carries.

Proffitt added 139 passing yards on 8-of-11 attempts to give Hillsboro a total offensive advantage of 421 yards to 242 yards for Remington. Regier ran for 188 yards on 42 carries.

Coming?Now 6-0 for the season, the Trojans begin district play Friday when they travel to Moundridge, who lost Friday to Sedgwick, 52-7, to fall to 1-5 for the year.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

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