VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – For the second week in a row, the Valley City’s defense played great and the offense scored just enough. Saturday, the Hi-Liners downed #2 Hillsboro/Central Valley 14-12, handing the defending state champs their only loss in East Region play this year and second on the season.
The Burros turned the ball over six times, five fumbles and one interception. The Hi-Liners turned one of those turnovers into points.
After a scoreless first quarter, the Hi-Liners struck first on a 37 yards pass from Kael Grebel to Peyton Zaun. Zaun caught the beautiful pass from Grebel in stride at the 15 and outran the defense for the score. Jay Kupitz added the extra point to cap an 8 play, 58 yard drive that took 4:36 off the clock.
On the ensuing kickoff, Gavin Mitzel fumbled on the return and Valley City recovered at the Burro 34 yard line. The Hi-Liners turned that fumble into seven points. The drive was seven plays and 34 yards took about three minutes off the clock. Grebel would score himself on a one yard run. The extra point made it 14-0. The big play on the drive was a 22 yard completion to Peyton Zaun after the under-thrown pass was tipped twice by Burro defenders then in to the hands of Zaun.
Zaun had 95 yards on five catches for the game, all in the first half. He would add an interception late in the game. Head Coach Scott Roehrich says Zaun played a great and he was happy for all the seniors.
The second half started out rather inauspiciously for Valley City. Two plays in, the Hi-Liners fumbled and Hillsboro-Central Valley recovered at the Valley City 23 yard line. Six plays later, Sam Preston scored on a quarterback option keeper from five yards out. The extra point was short and the score was 14-6 Hi-Liners early in the third quarter.
It stayed that way until the final moments of the game. The Hi-Liners punted the ball away to the Burros with 2:45 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Burros used two big pass plays to move 73 yards on four plays to score with 57 seconds left on a one yard run by Preston. On the drive, Preston completed a 33 yard pass to Parker Gallagher and a 30 yarder to Luke Dryburgh which got the Burros down to the Hi-Liner one. Preston took it in from there. On the two point conversion the pass intended for Nathan Rage was high and knocked away by Aiden Jacobson. Score: 14-12 Hi-Liners.
Hillsboro/Central Valley then recovered the onside kick at the Hi-Liner 48 yard line. After a completion, an incompletion and a ten yard scramble by Preston, the Hi-Liner defense came up with a sack by Landon Hanson. The Hail Mary attempt by Preston was batted away by Peyton Zaun as the clock hit zeros and the Hi-Liners came away with a 14-12 win.
Coach Roehrich says the defense and special teams played great and offense did just enough:
Valley City had 177 yards of total offense, the Burros 153. Max Fehr had 51 yards rushing on 28 carries to lead the Hi-Liner ground game. Grebel was 5 for 10 for 95 yards and one score.
Coach Roehrich says his team met adversity all year, and came out on top.
The Hi-Liners end the season with a 2-2 record in the East Region and 3-4 overall. Due to the odd number of games for the Hi-Liners because of the loss of the Kindred game due to COVID, it came down to a coaches vote to see who would go on and who would stay home. When the vote came in, Central Cass will be the number three seed out of the East and play at Beulah next Saturday and Devils Lake will be the number four seed at play at top ranked Bismarck St. Mary’s.