Highland grabs second half lead but falls to Washington in season opener at home
A third-quarter touchdown pass from Brent Wuebbles to Cade Atadonna had the Highland Bulldogs headed toward victory Friday night but IHSA Class 6A power Washington flipped the script the final 14 minutes.
Washington recorded a safety and then scored again to spoil the Bulldogs season opener with a 30-20 road win at Highland High School.
The finish was definitely not what the Bulldogs desired and Highland coach Jimmy Warnecke said he felt like it was a missed opportunity.
“We held them to a three and out and they punted and snapped it over the punter’s head. We took advantage of it with a one-play strike and took the lead on them and had the momentum briefly and just couldn’t make enough plays in the third and fourth quarter,” Warnecke said.
Washington (1-0) struck first with a 32-yard Noah Berlutt to Isaac Materson touchdown pass to go up 7-0. Paul Storer’s 30-yard field goal pushed the Panthers’ lead to 10-0 with 10:20 left in the second quarter.
Three minutes later, the Bulldogs’ offense came to life as Wuebbles raced off tackle 13 yards for a touchdown, cutting the gap to 10-7.
Washington responded with another scoring drive. This time Berlutt capped the march with a 14-yard touchdown run. The PAT failed and the Panthers’ lead was 16-7.
HHS answered right before the break as junior running back Travis Porter scored on a 1-yard run to trim the deficit to 16-13 after the PAT kick failed.
All in all, Porter had a solid debut in his first varsity start with 47 yards rushing and 55 receiving.
“Travis Porter, our tailback, I thought he did great for his first varsity game last night,” Warnecke said. “Unfortunately with the score the way it was and the layout of the game it was tough to kind of get him going in the run game because we were behind and kind of low on time. I thought he did a good job and our o-line played well for the most part.”
Highland (0-1) got its first and only lead of the night at 9:36 of the third quarter when Wuebbles connected with Altadonna on a 16-yard scoring strike for a 20-16 lead.
Wuebbles passed for 169 yards and ran for 82 yards with a pair of touchdowns. Altadonna had five receptions for a team-high 55 yards with a touchdown.
After the go-ahead score, the Bulldogs began to struggle as Washington’s defense stiffened and its offense got rolling on Highland’s defense.
“I think bottom-line, our biggest thing was to come out fast against this team ... that’s something we’ve struggled to do in the past and we struggled again last night,” Warnecke said.
Highland’s pass rush had a productive night on defense as Sky Freeman, Conner Hormann, Adam Korte, and Brodie Lewis all recorded sacks.
Linebacker Brendan Gelly led the Bulldogs defense with 11 tackles and six assists.
A look ahead for Highland
Warnecke said he felt the Washington game was a good week one test to show the Bulldogs where their focus needs to be going forward.
“It was a game we felt kind of got away from us early on, but Washington is the real deal,” Warnecke said. “They’re one of the best teams in the state and for us to have them week one and show the things we need to work on ... that’s where our focus is.”
The Bulldogs will look to pick up their first victory at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 3, when they host Edwardsville.
This story was originally published August 29, 2021 at 12:07 PM.