By Justin Feil, Packet Media Group
Significant improvements from their opening season loss had the Hillsborough High School football team on the brink of its first win of the season.
Warren Hills dashed those hopes in heartbreaking fashion with a fourth-down touchdown pass with 15 seconds to play for a 34-33 win over the Raiders.
“I do think they’ll react OK,” said Hillsborough head coach Kevin Carty Jr. after falling to 0-2. “We have another good one coming up. We’re going to Hunterdon Central. They’re going to be real good. Going over there with a chance to beat a big name team, we’ll feel good about ourselves again if we win. It’s not like we have to wait long to feel better.”
Hillsborough played markedly better in its second game of the season following a mistake-plagued 34-27 loss to Franklin in the opener. Again, the offense was able to put up points for the Raiders against Warren Hills and they answered every Warren Hills score with one of their own to regain the lead until there just wasn’t any time left to answer.
“I think we wanted to turn it over less,” Carty said. “I think we just needed to play better offense. We punted too much against Franklin. We only punted once against Warren Hills. We missed a couple fourth downs, and that’s something we have to get better at.
“We missed some opportunities against Franklin. We took advantage of them against Warren Hills more, but just didn’t get a stop.”
Al Fisher completed 14 of 20 passes for 189 yards and three touchdowns. Joe Schultz was 8-for-14 for 79 yards and a score. Five different Hillsborough players scored touchdowns.
“We were balanced,” Carty said. “We had two running backs run the ball well. We had two quarterbacks throw decent. Al got the majority of the snaps, but Joe was solid too. We had three receivers get touchdowns too. I think that’s our strength. We have a bunch of talented players in big areas.”
Kyle Kauffman ran 21 times for 134 yards and a score. Ryan Melillo rushed eight times for 57 yards. Dllon Zimmerman caught six balls for 118 yards and a touchdown, Jackson Parham had five catches for 67 yards and a touchdown, James Suseck had three catches for 30 yards and a touchdown, Zach Williams had three catches for 21 yards and Melillo had three receptions for 30 yards. Kauffman and Luke Jansen also caught a pass apiece, with Jansen’s catch going for a score.
“I thought we were a lot cleaner on offense,” Carty said. “Our completion percentage was much better, our turnovers were better. We were much cleaner on offense. We were a lot sharper. We ran the ball more significantly. I think we ran for 200 yards.”
Hillsborough has plenty of players in bigger roles than a year ago, and thus far they have been able to step into their spots and be contributors quickly. Leading the way in a key spot are the two quarterbacks.
“I think they played well,” Carty said. “There was definite improvement from the last week to the first week. Al’s put up some pretty good numbers so far. It’s a good percentage and he only threw one pick and it was a Hail Mary at the end of the half. He has six touchdown passes so far, so he’s had a good start. And Joe adds a running dimension and has a touchdown pass. I thought they played well.”
Their strong performances are one of the biggest positives to come out of the tough loss. While getting over the loss could take a couple days, Carty now feels more confident in his signal callers after seeing their strides over a week.
“Al showed some pretty good intelligence,” Carty said. “He picked up some things. He ran the offense well. I was very happy with it. I’m encouraged. That’s probably the most encouraging aspect moving into the next week. I feel confident in Al and Joe Schultz. I think Al did a pretty good job.”
Two missed extra points proved costly but with the offense clicking better, the Raiders can turn their attention to tuning up their defense. They have surrendered more points than they would have anticipated, and Hillsborough will be looking to shore up its play during this week of practice.
“I think we’re more talented on defense than we’ve played,” Carty said. “I think if we have some of these opportunities that we had (Friday) night later in the year, I’d like to think we’ll make the stops.”
The Raiders are also still gaining experience in their new roles on the defensive side, and there have been bigger growing pains. Hillsborough was just a few stops away from being able to turn the ball back over to its offense and likely getting a win.
“It was a tough game,” Carty said. “They hit a bunch of trick plays on us — a fake punt, more than one double pass. Some of our inexperience kind of showed. They were 3-for-11 on third down. They hit a couple fourth downs and we didn’t hit our fourth downs. They threw for a bunch, and we couldn’t get the stop at the end of the game, and we couldn’t stop it. Hopefully we will soon. I think we have a talented secondary and they made some plays at the end on us.”
Hillsborough will look to turn its fortunes around 7 p.m. Friday at Hunterdon Central. Central is also 0-2.
“They’re good,” Carty said. “I think we just have to play smart and do the things we have to do. I think we’ll feel good about it. They’re going to be very physical. They’re a good team. They’re 0-2 but they lost to two good teams. I think it’ll be our toughest test so far. But I don’t think it’s something we can’t do.
“I think our guys are going to be ready to go. I don’t think we have to do anything more, just do more consistently the things we know.”
