JEROMESVILLE – On a team with a variety of lead actors, Brock Bower is the stunt man.
During Hillsdale’s last two historic seasons, the senior has filled just about as many roles as a football player can fill.
When the Falcons (12-1) line up Friday in New Philadelphia against McDonald (13-0) with a second straight trip to the Division VII state championship on the line, Bower is bound to quietly come up clutch.
Need a tackle? The cornerback is closing in on 150 for his career.
Need a turnover? Bower’s nine career interceptions are one short of the school record.
Need a reception when star wide receiver Hayden McFadden is drawing all the attention? Bower has more than 20 in each of the last two years.
Need a change-of-pace ball carrier when star running back Owen Sloan needs a quick break? Bower has 51 carries and six rushing touchdowns as a Falcon.
Need a kick through the uprights? He’s taken over that role this postseason after an injury to Hillsdale’s best-ever kicker, A.J. Brown.
Bower’s numbers won’t jump out of the box score after any given Friday night. But No. 3 has turned in critical, behind-the-scenes production in more areas than anyone on the roster since the Falcons made their name as one of the best small-school teams in Ohio.
“(McFadden) is that big shot, (Sloan) is just gonna grind the defense down, (quarterback Kael Lewis) is a great athlete,” Bower said Monday. “I like to just stay as calm as possible and when my team needs me, I’ll be there and do what they need me to do.”
The 6-foot, 170-pound senior said he’s done essentially everything in a game for Hillsdale other than snap the football.
This year – after tacking on 15 pounds of muscle in the offseason – he’s become one of the team’s most important blockers.
“He’s an individual that does whatever we ask of him on the offensive end, whether that’s making plays out in space by catching the ball, running the ball or blocking,” Falcons head coach Trevor Cline said.
“This year he’s done a great job blocking and has given us a slot receiver who was able to get the job done and we were able to run behind him.”
Bower said he spent a lot of his summer working on technique so that he could outmaneuver would-be tacklers who often are 50 or more pounds heavier.
Of the ever-growing list of roles he has taken on, it’s the least glamorous he said he loves the most.
“I enjoy blocking, and I’m not just saying that,” Bower said. “Originally, it was the farthest thing from what I was expected to do, so I kinda like going out there and giving a lot of effort with it.
“We watch film and we see a lot of people not put effort into blocking and we kinda scoff at that. Why would you not want to block? Especially when you (can help clear the way for) Owen Sloan to run for an 80-yard touchdown; it’s a great feeling.”
The easiest place to see Bower’s impact has been in the secondary, where last year he was named a third-team All-Ohioan after turning in 47 tackles and three interceptions.
He had a career-high 54 tackles as a sophomore, and this fall has 34, to go along with five interceptions. One more pick and he will tie Chet Minniear’s Hillsdale career record of 10, set two decades ago.
“When the ball gets thrown his way, he’s usually the one that comes away with it,” Cline said. “He has some of the better hands that we’ve had in our program’s history … and I hope he’s able to get that record (before this season ends).”
“I wouldn’t have the opportunity to go after (interceptions) if the D-line didn’t put pressure on the quarterback,” Bower said. “Then you’ve got linebackers blitzing. It’s a team effort.”
On offense, his impact largely has been subtle.
To this point, Bower has accounted for 941 yards between rushing and receiving on exactly 100 touches in his career. He’s scored 16 total touchdowns.
This season, he’s accounted for at least 45 yards of offense in six games. In five of the games he hasn’t done so, he’s picked off a pass on defense.
Bower said he doesn’t consider himself any more of a Swiss-army-knife type of player than his teammates.
Still, he also has a team-high nine kickoff returns in 2025, and in each of the last two seasons, he’s completed a pass as well.
In a 34-14 win over Waynedale last season, he returned an interception 38 yards for a touchdown and scored on a 2-yard run.
In the biggest spotlight-grabbing effort of his career, Bower had three touchdown catches in the first half of Hillsdale’s 2024 season-opening game against Black River.
That night, Lewis set the program record for passing touchdowns in a game with six.
“Going into last year, I was thinking, ‘OK, I’m just gonna be (at receiver) to draw some peoples’ attention and hopefully we can get some receivers over the top,’” Bower said. “So catching three touchdowns in that first half was pretty sweet.”
Following that huge Week 1, he didn’t catch another touchdown pass until the postseason last year. But when Bower did find the end zone again as a receiver, it came in some of the most critical of spots.
In the regional semifinals – Hillsdale’s unforgettable 50-48 win over Malvern – he caught a Hail Mary pass from Lewis that was tipped into his arms for a touchdown and gave the Falcons a 23-20 lead at halftime.
Of course, the touchdown most remembered from that night came on the game’s final play, when McFadden caught another Hail Mary from Lewis to win it.
“Brock’s Hail Mary catch sort of got overshadowed because we also finished the game with one,” Cline said, “but that was huge momentum going into half for us and really kick-started what we did in the third quarter.”
The next week in the regional championship game against Cuyahoga Heights, Bower caught another TD just before halftime to help vault Hillsdale toward an eventual 44-14 victory.
Then, unbelievably, he did it again in last year’s Final Four, pulling in a touchdown just prior to intermission against Danville to help turn the tide in the Falcons’ eventual 25-22 comeback victory.
“If we would have went into half down 22-6, it would have put us in a bind,” Cline said, “but we were able to go in (trailing) 22-12 because of that touchdown and have some momentum into the second half.”
Asked if that trend – three touchdowns late in the first half of three straight playoff games – seemed crazy to him, Bower shrugged.
“I didn’t think much about any of it,” he said, “just that we were winning.”
“It’s just a credit to Brock of being someone that, over his career, when given the opportunities, he’s made a big play for us,” Cline said.
This season, Bower has five touchdowns and 467 total yards of offense, and his recent new PAT kicking duties helped push him over 100 points for his career (currently 108).
Since Brown tore his ACL in Hillsdale’s playoff opener against Conotton Valley, Bower is 12-of-15 on PATs.
Brown had made 191 PATs and 10 field goals in his career for 221 points – numbers that put him among the best kickers in Ohio history. Bower was his holder and backup for most of that time.
“It sucked to see him go down, but he’s taught me so much along the way,” Bower said.
The senior does have plans to attend college, and right now is keeping the door open to possibly playing baseball at the Division II level, with Walsh and Findlay as potential landing spots.
He’ll be a three-year starter on the diamond next spring for a Hillsdale squad that could once again make a deep playoff run.
But for now, Bower’s sole focus is a proper send-off on the football field, and he said he doesn’t need to be in the starring role.
“He works hard while he’s at practice, but he also understands that he’s playing football because he enjoys being around his friends,” Cline said. “He keeps things light, which is always good for team chemistry.”
“We’re in the state Final Four for the second year in a row,” Bower said, “so it’s kinda hard to compete with that.”