HHS rumbles, flashes to victory over Lyons

HHSfbLyonsTThiessenMoore

HHSfbLyonsTThiessenMoore

Hillsboro benefited from thunder and lightning on the field and in the sky on the way to a 35-0 win over Lyons Friday at Joel H. Wiens Stadium in Hills?boro.

Threatening weather ultimately stopped the game when play was halted for the second time with 2:26 left in the third quarter.

But on the field, it was the thunder of running back Tyrell Thies?sen (5-11, 265) and the flash of his brother Shaq (5-11, 149) at wide receiver and kick returns that ignited HHS to the victory.

Both teams struggled to move the ball in the early going. The first quarter ended with no scoring, but Hillsboro was on the move after starting the possession at its own 30-yard line.

Tyrell opened the second quarter with three consecutive carries?his first of the game?for 10, six and 10 yards to move the ball to the Lyon 14-yard line. Tyler Proffitt followed with a nine-yard carry to the 5.

After a false-start penalty, the Trojans scored four plays later on a 2-yard sneak by quarterback Luke Moore.

Jesse Brown followed with the first of five quality extra-point kicks for a 7-0 lead with 8:09 left in the half.

After Hillsboro forced a three-and-out on Lyons? next possession, Tyrell battered the visitors with back-to-back 11-yard runs before lightning forced a delay with 6:06 left in the half and the ball on the Lyons 20.

An hour and eight minutes later, the game resumed with Moore taking the first snap and slipping through the defense for his second touchdown and a 14-0 Trojan lead.

After another three-and-out defensive effort by Hillsboro, the Trojans went on the march again. This time they traveled 70 yards in seven plays, including a 35-yard pass from Moore to Shaq Thiessen that gave Hillsboro a first-and-goal at the 4-yard line.

Devin Dick scored two plays later from a yard out, and suddenly Hillsboro was up 21-0 with 52.3 seconds left in the half.

After an abbreviated halftime, the game resumed with Shaq returning the second-half kickoff 40 yards to the Lyons 40-yard line. Four plays later, Tyrell was rumbling like an express train into the end zone from 30 yards away.

Brown?s kick made it 28-0 with 10:39 left in the quarter.

After another three-and-done by Lyons, Hillsboro started at its own 34 and was in the end zone nine running plays later when Moore scampered in from 26 yards out.

Now trailing 35-0, Lyons ran one play from scrimmage before play was halted again because of the weather. About 10 minutes later, officials called it quits.

Over three quarters, Hills?boro rolled up 262 rushing yards on 40 carries and finished with 297 yards total offense.

Coach Max Heinrichs said it wasn?t his game plan to stick to the run almost exclusively.

?We still wanted to (pass and run), but they simply would not bring a guy forward to stop the run?so we went after the run,? he said. ?When they did bring a guy forward, that?s when we hit them with a long pass and a couple of sweeps.?

Meanwhile, the Trojan defense limited Lyons to 61 yards of offense, all of it coming on the ground.

Moore led the Trojans with 87 yards and three touchdowns on 11 carries.

?Luke had a great game tonight,? Heinrichs said. ?He read the offense well, and our line did a lot better tonight at sustaining blocks.?

Tyrell Thiessen accumulated 79 yards on only six carries, an average of 12.5 yards per tote.

?He?s a load?he?s 265 pounds and he?s one of the fastest guys on our team,? Heinrichs said of the junior. ?What we?ve got to do is have him play like a man every play. He did much better at that tonight, and Shaq did much better at that tonight, too.

?If we can get those two guys to really play up to what they have?for lack of a better term, a little swagger?we?re pretty tough.?

The win leveled Hillsboro?s record to 1-1 in the league and for the season, while Lyons dropped to 0-2 overall and 0-1 in league play.

?I don?t think we?re as good as we looked tonight, and I don?t think we?re as bad as we looked the other night (against Hal?stead),? Heinrichs said. ?I think we?re somewhere in between. We?ll get better. We got a little better tonight already.?

He said the victory was critical for the Trojans? season aspirations. ?What we knew last year and know this year, too, is that three (Hal?stead, Sterling, Hesston) of our first four games are our toughest games of the year.?

?We needed to get this (win) because if we don?t take care of things, we could be in the situation we were last year (1-3), and it takes a long time to get to .500.?

Coming?Hillsboro will travel Friday to Sterling (1-1), who is coming off a 26-14 loss to Smoky Valley.

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