The Vandals fell behind big early, then were able to rally and take the lead on two occasions in the 2nd half. But, they were never able to get the stop they needed defensively and they fell at Hillsboro, 39 to 32, on Friday night.
The Hiltoppers opened the game with a 7:57 drive that resulted in a 31 yard Field Goal by the Toppers’ Elijah Patton, in what seemed like a victory at the time in keeping Hillsboro out of the end zone. Then, on their first offensive possession of the game, the Vandals committed a False Start Penalty on what would have been the first play and then lost a fumble on the next. Hillsboro took advantage of the short field and punched in a TD by QB Patton at the 1:11 mark of the 1st quarter. On their next offensive possession, the Vandals did get a first down but again lost a fumble and Hillsboro turned that into a Touchdown when Patton ran 49 yards for the score at the 10:10 mark of the 2nd quarter to make it 17-0.
The Vandals would rally after that as they would get a Bentyn Diveley 2 yard TD run at the 6:31 mark of the 2nd quarter. Qwentyn Stombaugh would then connect with Ayden Carroll on a 57 yard TD pass at the 3:45 mark of the 2nd quarter. So, the Vandals went to halftime trailing just 17 to 14.
The Vandals would take a brief lead as they would quickly score on a 41 yard TD pass from Stombaugh to Cole Yarbrough just 43 seconds into the 3rd quarter as the Vandals led 20 to 17 after the point after attempt was no good. But, Hillsboro would regain the lead with a Tytin Wells TD and then a Gabe Wells TD at 7:33 remaining in the game gave the Toppers a 31 to 20 lead. The Vandals then got a TD pass from Stombaugh to Lucas Bowers for 52 yards and after the failed 2 point conversion, they trailed 31 to 26. The Vandals then recovered an onside kick and took it in for a TD on a 10 yard run by Brody Matthews at the 2:34 mark remaining in the game. But, the Vandals could not hold Hillsboro. After 1 TD got called back on a penalty, Patton would scamper 2 plays later for a 36 yard TD. The 2 point conversion was good and Hillsboro took a 39 to 32 lead. The Vandals did get deep into Toppers territory with just seconds remaining, but came up empty as they were unable to get to the end zone.
For the Vandals, they are now 1-1 on the season and they will host Pana on Friday night. The loss also ended a couple of streaks for the Vandals. It ended their 11 game winning streak over Hillsboro and it also ended their 18 game regular season winning streak.
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