Miami Trace stays undefeated against Hillsboro in conference battle
By: Jackie VanHoose
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HILLSBORO, Ohio (WOUB) – The Hillsboro Indians hosted the Miami-Trace Panthers on their homecoming night to try to bring down the undefeated titan of the Frontier Conference, standing at No. 2 before this game. Both teams showed impressive offensive and defensive work, with good records going in, but only one emerged victorious. After an initially close game, the Panthers quickly took control and dominated the home team, ultimately winning 49-6.
Miami-Trace got the ball first and set two precedents for the game: that they would score often and that the person with the ball would be junior RB Julian Baker, who scored five touchdowns in a game where the Panthers scored six in total. This first drive had him scoring from the 8-yard line after being thrown a route by QB Barron Phipps.
The Indians then took the ball, handing the ball off to RB Colin Swackhammer for their own touchdown. Before the home team could really revel in the tie, however, the extra point was blocked by Miami-Trace, ending the first quarter 7-6 in favor of the visiting Panthers.
With such a close score, it was truly anyone’s ball game going into the second quarter; however, that window of opportunity for the home team was quickly closed by the dominant offense of Miami-Trace. That was made obvious when the Indians punted to the Panthers, and Hayden Cornell for Miami-Trace caught it, running for an eye-popping 74 yards for yet another touchdown. The Panthers would land in their end zone two more times before the half ended, with Baker scoring both, leaving the score at 28-6 going into the half.
The Indians continued to fight, showing off their work on their run game that has lead them to this point, but continued to turn the ball over and punt back to the Panthers. Two touchdowns were made in the second half, one by the unstoppable Baker and with one minute left, RB Austin Brown ran for the only touchdown for Miami-Trace that wasn’t scored by the former player.
The game ended with a final score of 49-6, leaving the Panthers undefeated streak intact. They continue 7-0 into their game against Greenfield and the newly 4-3 Hillsboro Indians battle the Chillicothe Cavaliers next week.