SES wins football game, 47-21
Staff writer
The Hillsboro High School football team lost to Southeast of Saline Friday in the first game of district play in Hillsboro, 47-21.
SES pounded Hillsboro with its ground game. The purple Trojans picked up 389 total yards rushing and averaged 7.8 yards per carry. Running back Brock Long rushed for 220 yards and scored four touchdowns.
“That Long kid is a load,” Hillsboro head coach Max Heinrichs said.
SES quarterback Cody Schlesener picked up 121 yards on the ground and scored two touchdowns. He added 100 yards passing.
The Southeast of Saline offensive and defensive lines controlled the trenches throughout the contest. The purple Trojans’ roster features four players 250 pounds or heavier.
“They were big and they were good,” Heinrichs said. “I can’t see any one in our division beating them.”
The purple Trojans only gave up 46 yards rushing to their maroon counterparts. Hillsboro quarterback Luke Moore, usually a yardage chewer, was held to four yards on 10 carries.
“They did a nice job of gapping us,” Heinrichs said.
SES was up 19-0 early in the second quarter.
Faced with a large deficit, the Hillsboro Trojans changed strategy, spreading the field with receivers and passing on nearly every play in the second quarter.
Moore threw for first downs to Evan Ollenburger and Christian Ratzlaff before finding Shaq Thiessen on a fade into the end zone. Thiessen bested the Trojan corner in the air to come down with the jump ball.
On Southeast of Saline’s next drive, the purple Trojans were threatening in the red zone. However, Ollenburger intercepted a weak-side pass from Schlesener in the end zone.
Hillsboro could not convert a fourth-and-3 play and Schlesner scored a touchdown with a run up the middle to put SES up 27-7 with 1:40 left in the first half.
Thiessen made the play of the game with 24.5 seconds left on the clock.
Moore lofted the ball deep up the right sideline as Thiessen drifted toward the end zone on a fade route. The SES corner tipped the ball into the air, but Thiessen kept his concentration to catch the ball as it fluttered into his arms. With the SES corner on the ground, Thiessen strutted into the end zone, making the score 27-14.
“He’s a great athlete,” Heinrichs said of Thiessen. “We knew if we ran more plays for him, he would make big plays.”
With the ball to start the half, Hillsboro was not out of the game. The Hillsboro defense notched its first stop with a fourth-and-3 tackle by Tyrell Thiessen.
Moore completed a second-and-15 fade route pass to Ratzlaff, then Tyrell Thiessen picked up another first down to put the Trojans in scoring range. Starting his run between the tackles, running back Tyler Proffitt bounced the next play to the right side to score, putting Hillsboro within a touchdown, 27-21.
“We didn’t put our heads down, and we played hard,” Heinrichs said with satisfaction at the comeback attempt.
However, SES responded by marching down the field to score another touchdown and then forced Hillsboro to go four and out.
The purple Trojans ended the game with three unanswered scores.
“I still like my team,” Heinrichs said. “We have four losses but they’re four quality losses. We do some things well.”
Hillsboro plays Remington Friday in Whitewater.