JEROMESVILLE – History is getting closer and closer for the Hillsdale football team.
The Falcons throttled visiting Northwestern 36-6 on Friday night during Homecoming at Community Stadium, pushing them to 8-0 overall (5-0 Wayne County Athletic League) and another step closer to the first perfect regular season in the history of the program.
Running back Owen Sloan scored three first-half touchdowns and finished with 72 yards on nine carries to help set the tone against the youthful Huskies (1-7, 0-5).
The junior cleared 2,000 career rushing yards in the effort and has scored 100 points this season, but he focused his energy on what the Falcons have been working toward.
“It’s a goal, but overall it doesn’t matter to me,” Sloan said of the rushing milestones. “It’s all about the team and making a deep run as far as we can and finishing out the league and hopefully winning it this year.
“Being 8-0 is nice, but it just gives you more drive to be 9-0 and 10-0 and to move into the playoffs and just keep staying undefeated.”
The rout of Northwestern was another step in the right direction for the Falcons, whose No. 3 ranking in the Associated Press Division VII state poll is the highest in their history.
Hillsdale already has locked in its Ashland-area-record ninth consecutive trip to the playoffs, and another win next week at Rittman (4-4, 1-4) will have the team in the conversation for potentially hosting two postseason games.
“We knew coming into this season we could do good things,” junior Jake Haven said. “… We just have to keep taking practice serious and work on our fundamentals.”
Haven entered Week 8 as one of the WCAL’s leaders in sacks from his defensive end position, and he added a few more to his total on Friday.
The junior also chipped in a 1-yard touchdown run and caught a 2-point conversion pass as the Falcons built a 29-0 lead by halftime.
Haven, junior Aiden Hoffman and senior Bradey Krichbaum all were in the backfield throughout the evening. Their steady pressure helped slow down one of the WCAL’s most potent passing attacks.
Northwestern senior quarterback Isaac Beun entered the night as the conference’s leading passer (1,442 yards), with senior Mason Myers (41 receptions) and junior Rylie Ramsier (38) ranking 1-2 in the WCAL for receptions.
That trio had its moments Friday, with Myers catching four passes for 84 yards, Ramsier catching three for 70 and Beun ending up 14-of-28 for 212 yards passing.
“We tried to drop more guys into coverage to help eliminate some of his throws and we knew our D-line could get good pressure,” Haven said.
“We did a good job getting back there and getting sacks and pressuring (Beun) to make bad throws.”
The majority of Northwestern’s damage took place between the 20-yard lines, as the Huskies continuously put themselves in long-yardage situations with 10 penalties on the night.
A variety of dropped passes also kept Beun from posting more than 200 yards passing in the first half.
“We’re young, but we have enough players on the outside that we can throw the rock,” Huskies head coach Steven Carozza said. “(Beun) is a great quarterback, it was just the little mistakes, being young, and we just rushed ourselves a little bit too much.
“I can’t give enough credit to (Beun’s) football IQ and his ability to make things happen when it seems that we’re bottled up. … He’s worked really hard to get to where he is.”
Late in the first quarter, the senior found Myers for a 74-yard catch-and-run play that put the ball at the Hillsdale 10. But Haven picked up a sack on the next play and the Huskies ended the drive by missing a 30-yard field-goal try.
Had Northwestern been able to score a touchdown there, it would have been within 15-7. But the Huskies could never break through, scoring no points on offense despite getting into Hillsdale territory on five of their drives.
“(Beun’s) got a good arm and if you’re not disciplined in coverage he can make you pay for it,” Falcons head coach Trevor Cline said. “There were a couple times tonight he was able to buy some extra time for them and find some guys down the field.”
The only Northwestern points came on an 80-yard kickoff return from Myers late in the third quarter.
By then, Hillsdale already had triggered a running clock after quarterback Kael Lewis (13-of-21 for 191 yards passing) found Hayden McFadden for a 27-yard touchdown pass in the third to make it 36-0.
McFadden finished with 105 yards on five catches and also had a 21-yard run. The junior has surpassed 1,200 receiving yards for his career and four times this season has had at least 90 yards receiving in a game.
Haven added 35 yards on three catches and A.J. Brown converted all four of his PAT kicks on a night where the Falcons turned in their sixth victory by at least three possessions.
Next week at Rittman, Hillsdale will be trying to win nine games in a season for just the fifth time in program history.
A victory there likely sets up the Falcons with a monster home game in Week 10 against Norwayne, which improved to 7-1 (5-0) on Friday after knocking off Dalton, 17-14.
Plenty of Hillsdale fans, coaches and players gathered around their phones after Friday’s game to watch a livestream of the end of that WCAL showdown.
Carozza, whose Huskies had already played Dalton and Norwayne, said Hillsdale might have the best athleticism of any team in the conference.
Cline is hoping that carries over into another few weeks. His Falcons are in search of their first outright WCAL title since 2010 and the first 10-0 season in program history.
“We’re where we wanted to be and where we expected to be,” he said. “We put in a good offseason and that has gotten us here.
“But we’ve got to continue to get better if we’re going to beat the teams that we expect to beat.”
The Falcons will play their first road game of October next Friday at Rittman (4-4, 1-4), which was a 42-13 loser at Smithville (6-2, 3-2) in Week 8.
Northwestern stays on the road next week for a pairing with Waynedale (2-6, 2-3), which was a 20-0 victor over Chippewa (2-6, 1-4) on Friday night.
