Caleb Riordan | Ameritime Sports Writer
The De Soto Dragons’ Varsity Football team walked into Hillsboro and the Hawks ran them out of the stadium 47-0 on Friday.
This was the fifth straight win for the Hawks and it wasn’t one they had to sweat out. They came out of the gates firing in the first quarter. Austin Romaine gave his team the initial lead with a three-yard rushing touchdown and Hillsboro didn’t look back from there. Then, Griffin Ray connected with Tyler Watson on a 48-yard touchdown pass that put the Hawks ahead 14-0 by the end of the first quarter.
They showed no signs of slowing down in the second quarter either. It was Ray again who found the end zone, this time with his feet from three yards out. The Hawks’ special teams decided they wanted in on the fun, as Cruz Valencia fielded a punt off the bounce and ran it back 66 yards to the end zone. Their final score of the first half came by way of a Payton Brown interception that he returned for a touchdown. Hillsboro led 34-0 by halftime thanks to some savvy defensive efforts.
The Hawks continued to hold down the Dragons in the second half. Ray again found Watson with a pass and he made his way into the end zone from 11 yards out. Then, the final score of the game came on a 62-yard touchdown run where Romaine ran over everyone in his path. The Hawks held the De Soto offense quiet throughout the entire game and secured the 47-0 victory.
“I feel we performed great, got the shutout we were looking for, and made little mistakes,” Valencia said. “We are all confident in what our team can do, we just have to work for it day by day.”
Romaine racked up 98 yards rushing on eight carries and scored two touchdowns while Jaxin Patterson carried the ball eight times for 87 yards. He was held out of the end zone for an entire game for only the second time this season. Watson caught four passes for 85 yards and two touchdowns, and Ray completed nine of 13 passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns.
Once again, Romaine led the way on the defensive side of the ball for the Hawks as well. He had 8.5 total tackles and four of those were for a loss. Brown was just behind with six tackles of his own and a pick six. Alex Taberes-Medina and Watson had four tackles each. The Hawks suffocating effort only allowed 65 yards of total offense to the Dragons.
“Our team as a whole performed very efficient and exactly how we practiced all week,” Patterson said. “Preparation equals separation and I truly believe us going as hard as we do in practice will continue to create separation between us and other teams down the road.”
Hillsboro now sits at 6-1 on the season. They’ve rolled through their last five games and have pitched shutouts in three of them. This running attack and suffocating defense is tearing apart almost anyone it comes in contact with.
Next, the Hawks travel to St. Francis Borgia to take on the Knights next Friday, October 15th at 7 pm.
