Hillsdale dominant in regional quarterfinal rout of Mineral Ridge
· Yahoo Sports
JEROMESVILLE - For a program that has played an entire season — and then some — worth of playoff games over the last three years, Week 12 might've been Hillsdale's magnum opus.
Hosting five-seed Mineral Ridge, a team with 10 wins whose only loss was by five points on the road in the regular season finale to rival McDonald, four-seed Hillsdale knew efficiency was going to be key in the Division VI regional quarterfinal.
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The Falcons weren't just efficient, they were about as close to perfect as you could get in a 52-14 rout of the Rams.
"This is right up there because I think they're a quality football team," Hillsdale coach Trevor Cline said when asked where this performance ranks in recent history. "Right from the get-go we sort of overwhelemed them because our guys came out ready to go."
Mineral Ridge let the opening kickoff sail into the end zone for a touchback to open the game on its own 20 and proceeded to string together a 14-play drive — spanning eight minutes and 27 seconds of game time— comprised entirely of rushing all the way to the Hillsdale 23 before the Falcons stuffed the Rams on consecutive plays to force a turnover on downs.
From that point on, senior quarterback Kael Lewis began composing another signature performance needing just four plays to open the scoring when he hit junior Ayden Salyer on a short pass who proceeded to shed a tackle and sprint down the sideline for a 50-yard touchdown.
The Rams looked primed to respond five plays later when Lewis missed the jump on a pass intended for Thomas Koniowski III allowing the Mineral Ridge wideout to dodge a tackle from Salyer and take off down the sideline for 67 yards. But the play didn't end in a touchdown as Salyer sprinted after him and managed to punch the ball out on a tackle and recovered it himself.
"I've always told myself just to hustle, no matter what, hustle through the play and play to the whistle," Salyer said. "I try my hardest, no matter what. And I missed that tackle, I was pissed, but then I took off and tried to make up for it."
Freshman Mason Sloan ripped off a 43-yard run for Hillsdale on the opening play of the second possession followed by a Lewis-to-Salyer 39-yard connection. Two plays later, Lewis punched in from eight yards out to turn what very likely should've been a tie game to a 14-0 advantage.
"For Salyer to hustle to the end of the play, understand the stuff we work on in practice, and knock the football loose in a big time situation was awesome," Cline said. "That flipped the whole game."
Hillsdale's defense stepped up again on the ensuing drive denying the Rams on fourth-and-short again from their own 29 and the Falcons made them pay two plays later as Sloan scampered in from 13 yards out. They would go on to score three more times before the half — five touchdowns over the final nine minutes — as Lewis rushed in from 13 yards out, connected with Salyer again for a 31-yard strike, then linked up with his twin brother Knox Lewis from the five yard line.
"He played one heck of a game," Lewis said of Salyer who finished with four catches for 124 yards and two touchdowns. "I trust him so much to throw the ball up to him and he's going to come down with it. I had a little mishap on defense and he came right back punching the ball out and recovering the fumble. That's a leader right there, that's a play we're gonna show in film for the next few years and exactly what you want from a guy."
"I was really feeling it today and my confidence was through the roof," Salyer added. "I feel like I played by best game this year."
And Lewis capped off his final game in front of the home crowd with a 40-yard burst up the middle to open the second half.
"That's the best way to go out," Lewis said. "My first game here I had six touchdowns passing, and to go out with six is pretty special."
He finished 8-of-9 passing for 167 yards and three touchdowns along with rushing nine times for 97 yards and a trio of touchdowns.
"Kael's career in the postseason is something most kids would dream about growing up," Cline said. "To be able to do what he's done so far is unbelievable. We were talking to the guys before the game started that this senior class has played 13 playoff games — they've gotten the opportunity to play another season of football — and not too many people get that opportunity.
"It seems like the games that are the biggest, that's when Kael steps up and it's because he loves games like that because he's such a competitor ... this performance tonight is one of his top ones."
Hillsdale had a running clock for the entirety of the second half with Lewis' final touchdown making it 49-0 before Cameron Brown kicked a 24-yard field goal with 9:00 on the clock in the fourth quarter for the Falcons' final points. Mineral Ridge scored twice in the final three minutes on Timothy Serensky rushes against Hillsdale's second string defense.
Outside of the Rams' final two drives already trailing 52-0, Hillsdale's defense held them to 132 yards of total offense on 39 plays — 67 of those came on the reception that ended in a fumble, and another 57 on the opening drive.
"Just trying to figure things out," Cline said about tweaks following the first possession on defense. "And we were having issues getting a bit too far up field and they were getting underneath us. Once we were able to make that adjustment, we got it figured out and starting shutting them down."
"We knew we had to go blow for blow with them and we weren't able to do that," Mineral Ridge coach Andy Hake said. "And it kind of snowballed when it was 14-0 and we went for it on fourth down but didn't get it. It took the wind out of our sails and we weren't able to combat that."
The Falcons never ran more than four plays on any of their first seven possessions — four, four, two, four, three, two, four — all of which resulted in touchdowns.
"We talked to them about how important it was to be efficient this week because we knew that the game plan most likely for Mineral Ridge was going to be to eat up as much clock as they could," Cline said. "But our guys did a great job at executing ... we won the one-on-one battles like they've done for most of the year outside of the Smithville game."
Hillsdale (10-1) advances to the regional semifinal against top-seed, and defending state champion, Kirtland (10-1).
"We understand what's up next, and this is something we've been working towards all year — to get to the point to play one of these teams like this," Cline said. "Our guys have been exposed the last couple years to programs like this, so this is our third opportunity to get to go up against a program like this. It's gonna be a great opportunity for our program ... and if we want to become a program that is elite, these are the guys you gotta find a way to beat.
"Our guys are looking forward to the challenge and understand that it's going to take our best game to date."
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Hillsdale dominant in regional quarterfinal rout of Mineral Ridge