Trojans maul Lions on football field
Hillsboro uses basic offense and passing to ruin Lions' season opener, 33-7
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
The Trojans had lots of worries heading into Friday night's season opener against the Lyons Lions. The hosting Lions were reportedly supposed to have their best team since the early to mid-'90s.
Other than one touchdown drive the second half and two potential threats in the first, the Lions never really got out of the cage.
Trojan coach Len Coryea was especially leery of the Lions.
Why shouldn't he be?
It was his first game at the helm after succeeding a highly successful predecessor, Dustin McEwen.
Coryea stressed how he was going to use a little bit of McEwen and Don Penner's offensive theories. Both were former coaches for the Trojans.
McEwen favored the pass while Penner heavily relied on a ground game.
It translated Friday night into the Trojans sticking with the basics to smash the Lions, 33-7.
"It was a Don Penner thing: 'keep it simple'," said a joyous first-year coach Coryea. "Sometimes you just keep it simple until you get things under control. It was ugly, but a win is a win.
"I was worried. The running game wasn't looking very good, but I knew I had the passing game anytime we wanted it."
It was an ugly start for the Lions when their punt return man bobbled the catch on the opening possession.
Lucas Hamm was right there to pounce on the loose ball, setting the Trojans up with a first-and-10 at the Lions 31.
Just under 1:30 into the season, a 31-yard bullet from quarterback Derek Hamm to Daniel Deckert put Lyons in a hole.
Haunted for ages by the lack of an efficient kicking game, the Trojans may have found a remedy in sophomore kicker Tyler Kaufman. He connected on 3-for-5 on PATs.
Lyons had the opportunity to even the score when Tim Funk coughed up the ball on a handoff on Hillsboro's third possession, setting Lyons up with a short field. Unfortunately, the drive stalled out at the 26 with a five-yard net gain.
Even worse, Lyons went without a first down and never made it past mid-field until late in the second quarter.
That came after Derek Hamm went deep for a 35-yard bomb to Adam Scheele to make it a 14-0 game with :48 still left in the first quarter.
Scheele showed he'll be a force this year, catching one touchdown, returning an interception for a touchdown, and recovering a fumble.
With both he and Deckert well over the six-foot mark, Hillsboro's passing game picked apart the shorter Lion secondary in the first half with Derek Hamm completing eight of 19 passes for 151 yards.
Field position played a huge factor in the game with both teams squandering numerous opportunities to put points on the board.
It hurt Hillsboro more with D. Hamm getting picked at the Lions 8 to set up Lyons' longest drive of the game.
Moving the ball all the way to the Trojan 19, Lions quarterback Alex Reed gave the ball right back to Deckert, allowing Hillsboro to run the clock out on the first half.
Hillsboro added one more score with 1:50 left to go in the third quarter when Funk broke loose for a 38-yard touchdown scamper up the middle.
Funk carried the ball 24 times for a game-high 84 of Hillsboro's 99 yards rushing.
Kaufman's kick looked good from the stands and the sidelines, but it sailed wide right to give Hillsboro a 20-0 lead by the time Lyons could respond.
With 6:05 left in the game, the Lions finally struck, giving Coryea a brief glance of what had scared him — Reed hitting Brett Higgins for a 29-yard touchdown.
Catching four passes for a team-high 79 yards, a 19-yard dart from Derek Hamm to Deckert set Hillsboro up for first-and 10 at the Lions 27.
Facing a fourth-and-three at the Lions 21, Derek Hamm hit Ben Schaefer for a touchdown with just over 3:00 left, putting the lock on the Lions' cage.
Up 27-7 after the Kaufman PAT, Reed was picked by Kyle Kroeker inside Lyons' 20 on third and long.
Hillsboro's drive ended up stalling inside the five, but Reed floated the ball to Scheele on the Lions' first play of their final drive.
Not meaning to run the score up on Lyons, Scheele capped off his stellar performance with a 25-yard return for the 33-7 final.
Paced by a team-high 11 tackles with five solo, Lucas Hamm and the Trojan defense limited a so-called dangerous offense to 169 yards for the game.
"The thing that we've got to work on was about four times we had second and short yardage and we got the penalty and had to back up," Coryea said. "That bothers me.
"I'm going to go home and enjoy this one and I hope the boys do too. We've got to get some injuries healed up. I'm just happy."
The 1-0 Trojans open the home portion of their schedule Friday night against the 4A Chapman Fighting Irish at 7 p.m.
