HHS football: Collegiate trips Hillsboro
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
After falling to Wichita Collegiate last week, the Hillsboro Trojans should be able to vent their frustrations Friday against the Ellinwood Eagles.
The Trojans face the winless Eagles in a 7 p.m. kickoff in Ellinwood.
Hillsboro hasn't faced Ellinwood since 2003, but looks to get back its swagger. The Eagles were drilled Friday by Halstead, 56-0.
In its best start in eight seasons, Hillsboro (2-1) had bullied its first two winless opponents, Nickerson and Haven, by a combined score of 88-6. At the same time, Wichita Collegiate (2-1) was facing stiffer Hesston and Smoky Valley teams.
Collegiate quarterback Joseph Houlik made the big plays the Spartans needed to pin the Trojans, 24-7.
"There's no one that hurt us," Trojan coach Len Coryea said. "They're just faster than we are and speed showed."
Houlik threw for 123 yards and carried 23 times for a game-high 77 yards.
Collegiate's 259 yards of total offense is more than the Trojans had allowed in the previous two games combined.
But a pair of 22-yard runs by Michael Suderman and Spencer Brown had Hillsboro back threatening inside the Spartan 20 in the waning moments of the first quarter.
The Trojans couldn't convert in four-down territory on fourth and two, though, and the drive stalled at Collegiate's 16.
After a short punt sailed out of bounds in the strong south wind, Hillsboro got to open its next drive at the Spartan 24, its best starting point of the game.
Five plays later, Brown fired a 9-yard dart to Bret McIntosh to tie the game.
The Trojan boat sprung a leak after that as Collegiate reeled off 17 unanswered points to put the game away.
The Spartans pulled away the second quarter with Houlik engineering an 11-play 72-yard drive, capped off by a 29-yard pass to Cornejo.
Connor Anderson appears to have joined the likes of Jamie and Joe Rheem, who both starred at Kansas State, as another great Spartan kicker.
Anderson put through a 49-yard field goal with just under 2:00 left in the third quarter. This made it a two-possession game for the Trojans, who now trailed 17-7.
His previous attempt, one from the 50, was blocked and Hillsboro took over on downs.
But the Spartans dominated the second half both offensively and defensively, holding Hillsboro to 23 yards of offense, two first downs, and 1-for-9 on third down conversions. Suderman lead the Trojans with 47 yards on 12 carries.
"I could see it halfway through the third quarter, we're tired, we're dead," Coryea said of his defense living on the field. "We haven't had to go like this, which is good we had to go like this."
Coryea's fear of losing a lineman became a reality, forcing him to scrounge up a suitable replacement.
"Something we need to look at to change this is to try to get Adam Dirks back in the ball game," Coryea said. "We need to get him back in at linebacker to take care of some things."
"We were playing on our heels, we got on our heels because they started blitzing so hard. I think we need to get back more to throwing to Troy (Frick.)"
An all-Class 3A selection a year ago at wideout by the Wichita Eagle and Topeka Capital-Journal, Frick caught a pass from Brown and pitched to Lucas Hamm on a flea-flicker that set Hillsboro up at the Spartan 18. But an interception ended the drive.
Earning a living on defense the second half, Hamm was in on 25 tackles with nine solo while Josh Kenney added 21 with five solos.
