Highland football team drops to 0-3 following 20-point road setback to Marion
Highland’s football Bulldogs hit the road for the first time in the 2021 season Friday, Sept. 10, hoping to get their first win at always tough Marion.
However, Marion came out firing on all cylinders early, scored three first-quarter touchdowns and never looked back, handing the Bulldogs a 48-28 road defeat.
It was a tough pill for Highland to swallow after narrowly missing a win at home against Edwardsville a week ago.
“We were chasing the game for the third week in a row,” Highland coach Jimmy Warnecke said. “They put 600 yards (of offense) on us and they smacked us in the mouth. They brought at us what we thought they would.”
A big handicap for the Bulldogs coming into the game was the loss of junior wideout/safety Cade Altadonna, who suffered a grade one AC knee sprain against Edwardsville that robbed the Bulldogs of their top passing game threat.
“He’s a two-way guy who has started for us since he was a freshman ... so he was out for us and that put Brent Wuebbels at safety every play on defense and (at) quarterback as well and that limited us (offensively),” Warnecke said.
Marion jumped on the scoreboard just 51 seconds into the action when Evan Noelle hit Venson Newsom with a 63-yard touchdown pass for a 7-0 lead.
The Wildcats opened the second quarter with a TD as Deavon Margrum scored on a 3-yard run. Then, at the 3:08 mark of the second quarter, Noelle hooked up with Walker Fox on a 9-yard scoring pass, staking the Wildcats to a 21-0 lead.
On the next drive, Highland found the end zone as junior running back Travis Porter scored on a 2-yard run, cutting the lead to 21-7.
Noelle answered for the Wildcats on their next possession as he and Newsom connected again with a 50-yard scoring bomb making it 28-7 at intermission.
Highland (0-3) got back into the game on the first drive of the second half as Wuebbels hit Brodie Lewis with a 22-yard touchdown to shave the lead to 28-14.
Newsom answered again for Marion, hauling in a 28-yard pass from Noelle for his third score of the night and a 34-14 margin.
Three minutes later, Porter gave the Bulldogs some new life, scoring on a 1-yard run to cut the gap to 34-20 with 4:31 left in the third quarter.
Marion (3-0) re-established control just before the end of the third quarter as Brody Larson scored on a 2-yard run. Tommy Wiseman’s two-point conversion run upped the lead to 42-20 as the third quarter closed out.
HHS got its final score when Wuebbels connected with Porter on an 11-yard pass for Porter’s third TD of the night, which cut the gap to 42-28 after a 2-point conversion pass from Wuebbels to Brendan Gelly with 10:14 left.
However, the Bulldogs could not get any closer as the Wildcats defense dug in and then Lukas Shrum broke off an 84-yard touchdown run with 2:27 left to complete the scoring.
Bulldogs hope to crack win column against Jerseyville
Highland returns home Friday, Sept. 17, to open Mississippi Valley Conference play against Jerseyville at 7 p.m. Warnecke is looking for his players to take another step in the right direction in the MVC opener.
“We’re obviously not looking the best right now at 0-3, but I’m confident of the resilience of this group. We’ve got to figure some things out. I think we’re headed in the right direction and just doing some soul searching,” Warnecke said. “Guys have got to figure out what’s really important and what we’re doing this for, which is something bigger than themselves.”
This story was originally published September 11, 2021 at 4:53 PM.