JEROMESVILLE – For years there have been whispers about what the 2024 Hillsdale football team could become.
Led by an offensive core that has assembled a full-blown assault on the program’s record books, those whispers have turned to roars this fall.
The Falcons (11-1) are headed into the regional semifinals for the sixth time since 2009 on Friday when they face Malvern (11-1) at Massillon Perry High School in a Division VII, Region 25 showdown.
Armed to the teeth with athleticism that largely has come from players who will return next season, Hillsdale has steamrolled its way to this point, forcing running clocks in seven of its 11 wins.
“We have a pretty dynamic group of guys,” said Falcons offensive coordinator Tom Williams, who was the head coach at HHS for 15 years and collected the program record for wins (98-63) before stepping away after the 2017 season. “To have them all come through at the same time is pretty special.
“I think they’ve learned that if all of them are doing their jobs really well, in a roundabout way it all works out for everyone.”
Last week’s second-round, 43-14 obliteration of visiting Windham (10-2) was the perfect summation of the season for HHS.
Sophomore quarterback Kael Lewis and junior receiver Hayden McFadden connected on five passes, three went for touchdowns before halftime – a school-record 99-yarder, a 35-yarder and a 96-yarder.
By the end of the night, McFadden’s obscene statline was five catches for a school-record 250 yards and another school-record three receiving touchdowns.
Lewis, meanwhile, needed just 13 completions to total 351 yards – only 10 yards off the single-game school record he had already set earlier this season in the Falcons’ wild home win over Dalton.
Rewriting the record books has become this Hillsdale team’s thing.
Lewis, McFadden and junior running back Owen Sloan all have set multiple school records and could run down even more if this season continues to roll along.
“I was hoping to have a big year like this,” the 6-foot-2, 170-pound Lewis said. “With all the weapons – I think we have the best skill guys in (Division VII) and in the area – I knew with these guys we were going to put up some big numbers.”
“We’ve been thinking about this season for a long time,” he said. “We’re finally here and we’re in the moment right now, so we just want to go as far as we possibly can.”
In his first year behind center for the varsity squad, Lewis wasted zero time planting his flag in the ground.
The Falcons opened the season with a 44-12 rout of Black River. Before halftime, the sophomore QB had already set a single-game school record with six TD passes.
Any doubts that Lewis was the guy to lead the offense the next three seasons were quickly and definitively squashed.
“(Setting the passing TDs record) definitely kind of set the tone for the year,” he said. “With how the wide receivers and the line were that game, I knew it was going to be a big year.”
Now, 12 weeks later, Lewis already has set single-season passing yards mark by nearly 800 (2,417) and single-season passing touchdowns (27).
In a program known for its talented running backs over the last 18 seasons, Lewis has presented an air show the folks in Jeromesville have never seen, completing 138-of-213 passes and throwing just six interceptions.
Lewis has averaged a touchdown for every 5.1 completions in one of the best sophomore campaigns of any quarterback in Ashland-area history.
“Kael has a beautiful throwing motion and he puts the ball in the right spot a lot because it just comes off his hand nice,” Williams said. “He picks the right guys, sees the coverage, and I think that will be an area where he’ll really improve over the next two years, too.”
The Falcons need just 18 more points to break the program record set by the 2010 team (472), which is the only other HHS team to win 11 games in a season.
That potency has also come along because of guys like McFadden and Sloan. The two juniors have pushed the offense beyond 4,000 yards this season (338.2 yards per game), and neither of their efforts have been a surprise.
McFadden proved to be the go-to guy for senior quarterback Jack Fickes last season, gathering 34 catches for 660 yards and 10 TDs as a sophomore.
Before he re-set the record with Lewis on the 99-yard strike last week, McFadden and Fickes held the Hillsdale record last year with a 98-yard hookup.
“Hayden is one of the most explosive wide receivers,” Williams said. “We’ve had some fast kids, but Hayden just seems to have another speed when the ball’s in the air and it’s time to go make a big play.”
This fall, McFadden has become the first 1,000-yard receiver for a single season in team history (1,116 yards) and also has set the program mark for single-season receiving TDs (14).
“With Kael having a great arm, we’ve been able to go deep with it and get more touchdowns,” said McFadden, who also has returned two of his three interceptions for scores on defense.
The junior’s 45 catches put him within six of breaking the school record for receptions in a season. Yet he wouldn’t be having the year he’s had without the breakout senior season from receiver Holland Young.
Young never had a varsity reception for Hillsdale before this year, but in an extremely rare late-career rise, he has exploded in his final high school campaign for 779 yards and eight TDs. He’s just 60 yards away from breaking the previous school record for single-season receiving yards that stood before McFadden broke it earlier this fall.
Young’s 48 catches also put him closer than McFadden to the HHS receptions record (50) at this moment.
“It helps having another receiver who’s the same skill level,” McFadden said. “Whenever I’m not open, I can always count on him being open and when there’s a 50-50 ball, I know he’s coming down with it.”
Williams said this might be the most pass-heavy team Hillsdale has had. Where in the past the Falcons would often run the ball on roughly 70 percent of their plays, they are closer to 50-50 this year between run and pass.
Historically, the best Hillsdale teams would hammer the ground game and then throw a few passes over the top to keep defenses honest.
It’s the reason the Falcons have had running backs total 1,000-yard seasons 10 different times, but prior to this year, had never had a receiver collect more than 840 yards in a campaign.
A strictly run-first approach with the 2024 team would be wasting its talent.
“Some games we’ve just come out and thrown the ball the first (bunch of) plays,” Williams said. “We would have never done that in the past. It’s just a different style.
“Anytime you can do both run and pass well you’ve got a chance to be pretty good.”
While before, the Falcons would spread out roughly 50 carries a game among a variety of backs, this year’s offensive emphasis has allowed for Sloan to carry almost the full load on the ground.
His 26 touchdowns (25 rushing) are a new single-season record for the Falcons and he’s also got the program mark for career TDs (36) with a full season yet to play.
Sloan’s 1,169 yards on 158 carries this fall have him just 10 yards from 2,500 rushing for his career as well.
“We know the expectations are high so we’ve just got to do our job and execute,” he said.
Williams said Sloan’s talent has been as critical as any in 2024.
“Owen has really good vision and he finds the openings,” the coach said. “He sees things other people just wouldn’t see, so you give him the freedom to go make those plays.”
Sloan needs just 34 more carries to reach 400 total for his career. At 5-9, 180 pounds, he’s been a workhorse year after year, part of the reason his teammates have followed suit.
“Everyone loves getting into the weight room and working with everyone,” Sloan said. “On Sundays, it’s not mandatory lifting, but everyone shows up.”
Hillsdale juniors Brock Bower (334 yards and six TDs on 38 total touches on offense) and Jake Haven (142 yards, TD on 18 touches) are two additional threats for the offensive juggernaut.
Williams said every little bit helps when you’re playing in the Wayne County Athletic League – one of the best small-school conferences in Ohio.
“In our league, if you don’t have the personnel to get big plays, then you better be able to run the football and keep the ball away from their offenses a little bit more,” the coach said. “This year, we don’t really worry about time of possession because we’re going to have some big plays if we’re playing well.”
Rounding out the record-breaking Falcon crew has been one of just six seniors on the team, Bradey Krichbaum. At 6-6, 215 pounds, he switched from being a blocking tight end to a left tackle when Hillsdale ran into injury issues at the outset of the season.
Head coach Trevor Cline said Krichbaum has become the best blocker on the team, with most plays going his direction on offense.
His record, though, came on defense in Week 8, when his four sacks set a new standard during a 36-6 blowout of Northwestern.
“The further you go in the playoffs and the more success you have, that’s going to lead to more records being broken,” Krichbaum said. “When you have an overall team bond and good team chemistry, more individual players shine as well.
Krichbaum said he didn’t mind making his position switch on the offensive side of the ball, one that junior teammate Brady Heller (who moved from tight end to center) also made.
Lewis said the evolution of those two as standout linemen helped prove a lot of naysayers wrong this year.
Williams agreed.
“To have two non-linemen become linemen during the first week or so of the season, that’s pretty special,” he said.
The duo has still found a way to get its numbers on defense, with Heller leading Hillsdale with 109 tackles and Krichbaum chipping in 51.
The Falcons will carry it all into Friday night against Malvern and hope to stay alive once again in a season that will reverberate throughout the history of Hillsdale High School athletics.
“It still hasn’t really hit me yet that last week was the last home game I’ll ever play,” Krichbaum said. “Now, I’m in a different mindset that it’s all or nothing and I’m going to go out there and do whatever I can to have success for the team.”
“None of us are feeling burned out and none of us want to be done,” Sloan said.
