JEROMESVILLE — The Hillsdale defense did the heavy lifting again on Friday night at Community Stadium.
The Falcons forced three turnovers and limited backyard rival Loudonville to just 135 yards of total offense in a 20-6 win at Hillsdale’s Community Stadium.
For the second week in a row Hillsdale’s defense answered the bell. The Falcons limited Lucas to 213 yards of offense and forced three turnovers in last week’s 14-12 loss.
“We had another great week on defense,” Hillsdale coach Trevor Cline said. “Our tackling still needs work, but defensively this is the second week in a row where they’ve gotten after it and played with a lot of heart.”
The Falcons (1-2) didn’t waste any time on a picture-perfect night for football. Junior defensive back Max Vesper picked off a pass on Loudonville’s first possession and returned it to the ‘Birds 31-yard line. Two plays later, Ethan Goodwin ran around the right end for a 31-yard touchdown and Hillsdale led 7-0 with 10:13 remaining in the first quarter.
“We have a young quarterback and you can’t throw the ball late over the middle,” first-year Loudonville coach John Battaglia said. “It’s a learning process. We have to learn from those mistakes.”
The Redbirds (0-3) answered when quarterback Matt Sprang tossed a 4-yard touchdown pass to Connor Harper midway through the first quarter. The extra point attempt was blocked, however, and the Falcons led 7-6.
The score remained that way until early in the third quarter, when Hillsdale quarterback Cole Sinnett hooked up with Carter Brightbill on a 39-yard scoring strike via a perfectly executed slant pattern. Brightbill leaped high into the air to snag the pass before darting untouched into the end zone.
“Going over the middle like that, it was a big-time play,” Cline said of Brightbill’s TD grab. “The last two weeks Carter has played really well.”
Hillsdale spent much of the fourth quarter deep in Loudonville territory and finally iced it with 1:32 remaining when Presley Lewis scored on a 2-yard plunge to make it 20-6.
“I feel the last two weeks our kids have played hard,” Cline said. “We expect to go in and compete every game. Sitting at 1-2 is not where we want to be at, but we are improving.”
Battaglie also has seen bright spots despite the 0-3 start.
“The defense played their butts off,” Battaglia said. “I’ve seen a lot of good things. We’ve just got to clean up the mistakes.”
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