Special teams, Porter power Highland to big MVC road win at Civic Memorial
Heading into its showdown with Civic Memorial, the Highland Bulldogs offense needed a spark from somewhere.
Enter the Bulldogs special teams and the steady, hard running of junior running back Travis Porter.
Highland’s special teams pulled out a couple of clutch plays early and Porter scored four touchdowns to help propel the Bulldogs to a badly needed 34-14 MVC road win Friday, Oct. 1, at Civic Memorial High School.
Highland (2-4, 2-1) previously dropped a critical conference match-up at Triad (31-26) the week prior and was thrilled with the bounce-back victory. Civic Memorial, meanwhile, dropped to 4-2 and 1-2 in conference.
“They (the players) came to play last night,” Highland coach Jimmy Warnecke said. “We really responded to a really tough defeat last week and it’s great to see the resolve the boys had.”
Porter got the Bulldogs’ offense going in the first quarter with a 2-yard touchdown run. A blocked punt by Highland’s Cameron Willis set up Porter’s touchdown run.
“Coach Riley Litzenberg — our linebackers and special teams coach — kind of drew that one up and worked on it this week and thought we could get it. It was just a great football play by Cameron,” Warnecke said.
Late in the second quarter, Highland found the end zone again as James Beard scored on a 10-yard touchdown run. Brent Wuebbles connected with Brendan Gelly for the 2-point conversion pass to make it 14-0 with 3:29 left in the first half.
In the meantime, the Bulldogs defense was sharp early as they kept the Eagles offense grounded, allowing HHS to take a two-touchdown lead into halftime.
“It sure did,” Warnecke said of the Bulldogs defense. “Our goal there was to make them one dimensional and really take the run out of it and try to rally to the pass. I thought we accomplished that and that was a key to victory as well and we took advantage of some long-yardage situations ... we’re getting there (defensively).”
CM got back into the game right after intermission as Miguel Gonzalez returned the Bulldogs kickoff 85 yards to the house, cutting the lead to 14-7 with 11:45 left in the third quarter.
Highland quickly answered, however, as Porter scored from seven yards out.
Just before the end of the third stanza, Logan Turnbyfill brought the Eagles close once again, scoring on a 5-yard run. Bryer Arview hit Luke Parmentier for the 2-point pass play and the HHS lead was just 21-14 as the quarter closed out.
Highland returned to the ground game and put Porter back to work. The plan succeeded as Porter hit paydirt again scoring his third rushing touchdown of the night on a 4-yard run to make it 28-14 with 9:03 left.
Porter’s strong performance allowed the Bulldogs to have balance on offense and control of the flow of the game.
“We really tried to establish the run game and that was really our main focus. I thought we had some early success with it and stayed committed to it,” Warnecke said. “Sprinkled some in here and there and we were just trying to be patient and take what they gave us with the short (passing) game. The intermediate (pass) routes and screen game helped us out with a really good flow and good balance.”
Wuebbles hooked up with Porter on a 33-yard catch and run to cap the scoring.
Next up: Waterloo
Highland returns home at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8, to host MVC foe Waterloo in another back-to-the-wall conference game.
“Just compete and compete hard and what happens, happens and try to control what we can ... and preparing for our opponent,” Warnecke said.
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 4:06 PM.