Hillcrest uses ground game to earn school’s first 10-win season

Hillcrest tailback Stuart Andress

While everyone in the state — and possibly the nation — knows Hillcrest High School is at its most destructive when passing, the Hornets won its first-round playoff game with an abnormal dose of running the football.

And senior tailback Stuart Andress was up to the challenge on a historic night.

“I had no idea I’d carry it that much,” Andress said.

The Hornet running back carried a career-high 25 times for 137 yards and a TD in a 35-14 victory over St. Clair Wednesday night in a Regional game, giving a Hillcrest (10-1) team 10 wins for the first time in school history. While 139 yards is a good, but not jawdropping amount of yards, each carry seemed to chip away at the Bulldogs’ swagger. Eventually the Hornets seemed to impose their will and advanced to travel to Union (11-0) at 7 p.m. Monday.

St. Clair (7-3) had no answer for Andress, mostly because the Bulldogs assigned a safety to specifically double-cover Dorial Green-Beckham, the nation’s No. 1 receiving prospect. Union ended up doing a great job on DGB, holding the national recordholder for career yardage to just 5 catches for 68 yards including two TD catches (1, 5). Essentially, the Hornets proved they could run the ball effectively and confidently in a game with everything on the line.

Aside from St. Clair’s defensive gameplanning, the weather was cold, windy and rainy, especially in the second half. As the weather has the ability to be cold and wet, this was a huge statement to the rest of the state that Hillcrest isn’t one dimensional.

Hillcrest plays Union at 7 p.m. Monday. Union beat Republic 28-6 at home, and will again host. The Winner of that matchup will face the winner of the Webb City/Jefferson City Helias game.

Scoring summary

Hillcrest    7     21     7     7 — 42
St. Clair     0      2     12   0 — 14

First quarter

Hillcrest — Matt Futrell 1 run (Chase Briscoe kick)

Second quarter

Hillcrest — Futrell 1 run  (Briscoe kick)
St. Clair — Safety, bad snap out back of end zone
Hillcrest — Stuart Andress 8 run (Briscoe kick)
Hillcrest — Futrell 1 pass to Dorial Green-Beckham (Briscoe kick)

Third quarter

St. Clair — Kyle Juergens 62 run (run failed)
St. Clair — Juergens 15 pass to Alan Barett (kick failed)
Hillcrest — Futrell 5 pass to Green-Beckham (Briscoe kick)

Fourth quarter

Hillcrest — Scott Jankowski 3 run (Briscoe kick)

Stat geekage

Hillcrest

Dorial Green-Beckham, senior WR — 5 catches, 68 yards, 2 TDs; 1 rush, 21 yards
Matt Futrell, senior QB — 13-of-21 passing, 142 yards, 2 TDs, INT; 2 TD runs

St. Clair

Kyle Juergens, junior QB — 5-of-18 passing, 49 yards, TD; 15 carries for 135 yards