On October 6, the Highlands Bluebirds took on Boone County Rebels for the Highlands Homecoming game and pulled out a 53-7 victory on their own field. Senior Davis Hinegardner got the game going with a terrific punt return for a score in the opening 12 seconds.
“I wasn’t sure where the kick would go because we knew he was a wild kicker, but once it came to me short I knew we had a shot. I remember it going silent while I was running down the sideline and once I got to the end zone I was relieved because we’ve been looking for a special team’s touchdown all year,” said Hidegardner when asked how he was feeling while receiving the first punt return.
Senior Brody Benke’s handoff to Senior Cam Giesler set up the second touchdown of the night. The Bluebirds closed the first quarter with a 27-yard pass from Benke to Junior Adam Surrey, resulting in another touchdown.
Highlands’ second quarter started out with Benke tossing the ball to Junior Jack White for the first touchdown of the period. Sophomore Rio Litmer had a huge influence on the quarter, beginning with a 34-yard gain and an incredible pass completed to Benke for the half’s second score. He also had another spectacular completed toss to Junior Tommy Ferring, which resulted in the game’s last touchdown of the half.
Boone County received the kickoff just after halftime. They made an 80-yard drive and scored their first and only touchdown of the night in the final four minutes of the third quarter. Once again, Litmer with another outstanding pass of 23 yards which completed Hinegardner’s second touchdown of the night and the last for the game. Senior Jack Haggard kicked a 25-yard field goal in the closing 30 seconds of the game, giving us a final score of 53-7.
Highlands had a perfect passing game with four quarterbacks during the game. Head Coach Bob Sphire said: “Between four quarterbacks we did not throw any incompletions and that is a tribute to our offensive line which has played really well all year… Anytime you play quarterback, Senior through Freshman, in a game and you have a 100% completion rate, that’s pretty good.”
Just as the scoreboard ran down to the last few seconds, it was revealed that Sphire had just completed his 300th career win. The crowd was cheering and the team was absolutely ecstatic.
When asked about how he felt about the milestone, Sphire said: “It felt great. I was really glad there was very little talk and knowledge about it. I didn’t want anything last week to be about me. These kids are having a great year and they deserve the attention and the focus…I’m looking forward to 301, and 302 and on from there.”
As the team was celebrating their coach’s big accomplishment, Senior Dalton Roller poured ice water down Sphire’s back and he couldn’t help but smile despite how cold it was.
