By Phil Keren

Correspondent

In a matchup of undefeated teams on Friday night, Highland used a physical brand of football to defeat Aurora 34-0 and capture the Suburban League championship in the American Conference.

Aurora head coach Bob Mihalik noted that Highland outplayed his squad in the trenches.

“Hats off to Highland,” said Mihalik. “They’re a very physical team. They punched us in the mouth, and we didn’t have much of a response up front. They dominated the line on the offensive and defensive lines. I think that was the key to the game.”

Highland rushed for 260 yards, while holding Aurora to 14 yards rushing on 16 attempts.

In addition, Mihalik noted his team struggled with turnovers and penalties.

“We didn’t do anything to help ourselves,” Mihalik said. “That’s uncharacteristic of us, but they caused it, so credit to Highland.”

Highland head coach Mike Gibbons offered kudos to his staff and players for working together to shut out a team that was averaging 48 points per game.

“I think our defensive staff put together a great plan and went out there and we executed,” Gibbons said. “We have really good players and they went out there and they played well.”

Aurora played the game without star running back and defensive end Lucas Manderbach, who suffered a “pretty significant injury,” according to Mihalik, last week in Aurora’s 53-3 win over Barberton. Manderbach will miss Aurora’s playoff campaign, as well.

“Arguably, he’s our best guy on both sides of the football so it hurts (to lose him),” Mihalik said. “Football’s a team game, and we got to pick it up and have a next guy up mentality.”

On Aurora’s opening drive, two consecutive penalties hurt them.

A penalty for ineligible receiver downfield wiped out a pass play that picked up a first down. The Greenmen were then whistled for a false start and couldn’t gain all that ground back. On the punt, when Ryan Dwyer bent down to catch a low snap, his knee touched the ground and Highland took over at the Aurora 24-yard line.

After runs of 7, 9 and and 3 yards from running back Casey Myser, Highland running back Lucas Gerding scored on a 5-yard jet sweep around right end. The Hornets had a 7-0 lead at 7:38 of the first quarter.

On its second drive, Aurora picked up a couple first downs, with Dwyer hitting Ben Lukasik for a 16-yard gain, and also connecting with Zach Pannetti for 8 yards. On second-and-2 from the Highland 38-yard line, Aurora recovered its own fumble, but the play set the Greenmen back 4 yards and the third-down pass was incomplete.

Highland then took to the air with two big passing plays on its next scoring drive.

Quarterback Dylan Borla connected with tight end Evan Foust down the sideline on a wheel route for a 45-yard gain. Three plays later, Borla faked the handoff to Gerding, dropped back a couple steps and tossed a pass down the middle of the field to Foust, who sped into the end zone for a touchdown.

Highland led 14-0 with a little more than a minute left in the first quarter.

In the middle of the second quarter, after Highland’s fake-punt attempt was unsuccessful, Aurora started a drive on its own 23-yard line. A first down pass was tipped by Hornets linebacker Jameson Gordon, bounced off an Aurora receiver’s hands and intercepted by defensive back Garrett Phillips at the Aurora 47-yard line

On the next play, Myser ran to his left, found a seam through the first and second levels of the Aurora defense, and accelerated down the sideline for a 47-yard touchdown to put his team ahead, 21-0, at 5:55 of the second quarter.

“He is a special player,” Gibbons said of his standout running back Myser. “Glad he’s on our team. He does some amazing things, and I would say the guys that are up front did an amazing job, too.”

Mihalik acknowledged Myser’s talent and the hard work of the Highland offensive line.

“Our defense played hard,” Mihalik said. (Myser) is just a heck of a running back. They average 270 up front on the offensive line. They just out-physicaled us.”

Highland started the second half with a seven-play, 59-yard that was capped by a 1-yard scoring run from Myser.

Though Myser ran on five of the seven plays, the big play was a 22-yard pass from Borla to Gerding that moved the ball to the Aurora 7-yard line.

Gibbons said Borla “is a really smart kid, heady kid, made some really good decisions. We didn’t throw the ball a ton tonight but when we did, he had a huge impact.”

Aurora struggled to run the football, which meant the gameplan pivoted toward more passing.

Midway through the third quarter, the Greenmen mixed passing and running plays to move the ball 64 yards in 11 plays. The drive was highlighted by Dwyer connecting with Lukasik and

Luke McGovern on plays of 18 and 16 yards, respectively. They even ran a reverse pass play, where Lukasik tossed the ball to Dwyer for an 8-yard gain.

“We wanted to run the football,” Mihalik said. “We could not run the football, and I thought we had a good plan throwing the football. We moved the ball pretty well.”

Mihalik noted his team got into the red zone twice in the second half, but were unable to score.

Dwyer completed 18-of-28 passes for 177 yards.

Facing first-and-goal at the Highland 5-yard line, Aurora’s pass was intercepted in the end zone by Phillips with 25 seconds left in the third quarter. Early in the fourth period, Myser started running to his left, cut back to his right and broke away for a 63-yard run all the way to the Aurora 5-yard line. After getting two interceptions, Phillips showed off his offensive skills with a 5-yard scoring run on a cutback play to put the Hornets ahead, 34-0, early in the fourth quarter.

Myser finished with 192 yards on 21 carries.

Aurora will now begin preparing for the playoffs in Division III, Region 9.

“We told our kids we’ve got our second season starting right now,” Mihalik said. “That’s a really

good Division II football team. We’re going to play of bunch of D-3s now in our region. Our goals haven’t changed. We want to make a deep run in the playoffs.”