JEROMESVILLE – In a battle of Wayne County Athletic League unbeatens, the offense of the Northwestern Huskies proved to be too much for the defense of the Hillsdale Falcons.
A Falcon defense that had only allowed 33 points in its first four games had no answers for a Husky offense that gained 408 yards of total offense and scored five touchdowns as Northwestern topped Hillsdale, 42-27.
“They’re a really good offense. They’ve got a lot of weapons and those guys were able to make some plays against us tonight,” Hillsdale coach Tom Williams said.
Hillsdale (4-1, 1-1) opened the scoring with an 11-play, 70-yard scoring drive on the first possession of the game, capped off by a 32-yard touchdown pass from Trey Williams to Andrew Wolf.
But that strong start by the Falcons was quickly forgotten as the Huskies scored 28 unanswered points.
After trading three-and-out drives, Northwestern (5-0, 2-0) took over on their own 24. After a 3-yard run by Derick Duvall, Brock Thut completed a 63-yard pass to Tristan Ammon. Two plays later, Thut ran it in from 1 yard out, tying the game at 7 with 3:21 left in the first.
On their next possession, the Huskies scored on a 6-yard pass from Thut to Brandon Reed with 10:06 remaining in the second quarter.
After another three-and-out by the Falcons, the Huskies scored on a 65-yard pass from Thut to Nick Letterly, putting the Huskies up 21-7 with 6:45 left in the half.
The Huskies scored again when Mason Wilhelmy picked off a Williams pass and returned it 35 yards for a Husky touchdown, making it 28-7 with 2:19 remaining in the first half.
Hillsdale answered quickly, with Williams scoring on a 6-yard touchdown run after marching 69 yards in 1:29.
On the first drive of the second half, the Huskies marched down the field on a 15-play, 76-yard drive, ending with Thut carrying the ball into the end zone from the 3 yard line, giving the Huskies a 35-14 lead.
Northwestern recovered the ensuing kickoff, giving them the ball on the Falcon 49 yard line. After a 49-yard touchdown pass to Reed on the first play of the drive was called back by a penalty, the Huskies added 6 more points with a 27-yard touchdown run by Duvall.
Hillsdale added two Craig Cline touchdown runs in the fourth quarter but it was too little too late for the Falcons, who fell to 1-1 in the WCAL.
“We had some things that were kind of working. They made some adjustments and took a few of those things away and it just took awhile for us to find something else that was going to be good, and like you said it came maybe a little too late,” Williams said. “We just kept battling for four quarters but tonight they were just the better team.”
The Falcons turned the ball over three times including two fumbles and an interception.
Cline led the way for the Falcons with 145 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Williams completed 13-of-25 for 145 yards, 1 interception and 1 touchdown, and also rushed for 1 touchdown. Wolf caught 6 passes for 105 yards and a touchdown.
Thut threw for 257 yards and 2 touchdowns along with 1 interception for the Huskies, who travel to Waynedale next week.
Hillsdale travels to Rittman (3-2, 1-1) next week.
“Hopefully we bounce back next week. The league, it’s a long stretch. We don’t want to dwell on anything too long,” Williams said.
