It was a cold, wet Friday night for football on Friday night as the Indians of Hillsboro High School as they traveled to Chillicothe High School for a South Central Ohio League match up with the Cavaliers.
Not only were the Indians looking to stop a two game losing streak, but were also trying to get some payback for being shutout against the Cavaliers last year 55-0.
They started that process early.
The Indians were the first to strike in the game, and did it off a mistake by the Cavaliers.
The rain was off and on all night, but for a majority of the first half, was on. This played to Hillsboro’s advantage because Chillicothe was having trouble throughout the night holding on to the football. Hillsboro had a total of three recovered fumbles in the game and the first one set them up for their first touchdown.
With 8:04 remaining in the first quarter, Chillicothe fumbled the ball and it was pounced on by Hillsboro. The Indians slowly but surely marched the ball towards the Cavalier endzone, but at the 4:48 mark Lane Hester ran for a pickup of just two yards and the Indians were looking at third down situation.
The Indians handed the ball off to Heith Brown on the next play and the Hillsboro offensive line cleared a gaping whole in the Cavalier line for him to run through and he picked up 15 yards with the carry and the Indians were on the two yard line. The very next play, the ball was once again handed to Brown, who bashed his way forward for the score and put Hillsboro up 6-0.
Neither team was able to do anything for the remainder of the half. Chillicothe got within field goal range with just 7.4 seconds before the halftime buzzer but the field goal fell short of the uprights and the Indians took a small but momentum giving 6-0 lead into the half.
The second half was a half of Chillicothe shooting themselves in the foot. Two more fumbles were recovered by Hillsboro and two touchdowns were called back because of penalties. In the end though, the Cavaliers were able to get into the endzone twice in the second half to win the game 14-6.
Hillsboro threatened one more time in the fourth quarter, going through the air to pick up yardage without eating up the clock, but a pass that would have taken the Indians down the Chillicothe 30 yard lien was intercepted and led to the second touchdown for the Cavaliers.
The Indians fell to 1-5 overall and are now 0-3 in the SCOL and will host Clinton-Massie on Friday October 9.
Reach Robert Stegbauer at 937-393-3456 ext. 1679 or on Twitter @RStegbauer.
