Swathers defeat Trojans in football
The Hesston Swathers beat the Hillsboro Trojans in yet another heart-breaker this past Friday.
Those hearts will mend quickly if the team can bounce back at 7 p.m. Thursday at Remington.
A Trojan victory over the Broncos would lift them into the playoffs, and end a three-year absence from post-season play.
The top two finishers in the four-team district move on to bi-district play. Hesston (6-2, 2-0 in district) has assured a spot. Marion was eliminated in two games. So the winner between Hillsboro (5-3, 1-1 district) and Remington (7-1, 1-1 district) will advance.
"We've got an excellent shot [to make it to the post-season]," said Hillsboro coach Len Coryea. "But Remington throws the ball a lot, so we've got to watch our match-ups there."
Hesston had no problems with Remington or Hillsboro.
Hesston crushed Remington two weeks ago, 42-13, running up 465 yards and allowing a scant 117 yards of offense.
This past Friday, the Swathers held the Trojans to 14 yards on the ground and 160 yards overall.
But early on, it seemed as if Hillsboro was poised to snap the four-game losing streak.
Aaron Stepanek's punt return put the Trojans on the Hesston two on the first possession of the game. Michael Suderman scored on the next play to put Hillsboro on top 6-0 three minutes into the game.
But extra point attempts have been a bugaboo for the Trojans all season, and they continued when Swather Lee Voth-Gaeddert knocked down Tyler Kaufman's point after kick to leave the score 6-0.
Using a three-back power-I set, the Swather trio of Cameron Bailey, Michael Petrocci, and Jake Wray punished the Trojans for 169 yards. The Swathers kept the ball in the trio's hands, storming right down the field with Bailey scoring from one out with 3:47 still to go in the first quarter.
The same player who blocked the Trojans' PAT attempt, Voth-Gaeddert, put Hillsboro booted the point after, for the 7-6 lead.
The Swathers recovered a bad Trojan punt snap at their own 11. Four plays later, quarterback Brett Leichty scored on a two-yard keeper, to lead 14-6 at the half.
The Swathers kept the ball on the ground, controlling the clock and wearing out the Trojan defense on the opening drive of the second half. Hesston capped the drive with a 37-yard field goal, using up 9:31 of the third quarter for a 17-6 lead.
But Brown orchestrated a five-play 63-yard drive in just over two minutes. And after a 34-yard completion to Lucas Hamm, Brown plunged in for a one-yard TD with just under 30 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Trojans tried for a two-point conversion, but the play failed.
With the score 17-12 in the fourth quarter, Hillsboro recovered a fumble on their own 26 yard line.
Brown carried the ball for nine yards and connected with Jacob Yoder for 35 more to put the Trojans inside the Swather 20. But an incomplete pass thwarted the comeback bid.
"We had our chance there," Coryea said. "I think the boys played extremely hard. But we learned that if we play with a higher intensity, we can stop them."
