Rams Fall To Titans

Under the Friday night lights, the Highland Rams competed against the Olympus Titans in what many believed was the de facto region championship. 

Normally a tight contest, Highland was hoping for a bit of revenge after a last-second lost in 2018 cost the Rams a region title. Unfortunately for Highland, the offense never quite got going and the game did not have its typical fourth quarter drama, as Highland fell short to Olympus 24-6. 

Despite both teams’ evenly-looking records, it Olympus that looked more polished. With four minutes remaining in the first quarter, the Titans handed it off to Chase Hopkins for 22 yards, finishing in the endzone, and taking a 7-0 lead.

The beginning of the second quarter was slow, but  Olympus pulled the previous move that earned them seven points and handed it off to Hopkins, scoring his second touchdown of the game.

Soon after, Highland made it into the red zone for their first time. Hunter Lambert completed a pass to Ben Boren, who ran to the endzone and put six points on the board for Highland. There was a personal foul on the defending team when the Rams went for the extra point. With 50 seconds to go, Highland called for a timeout and decided to go for two. Lambert threw it to Paul Clark, but he was unable to catch it in the endzone.

Although Olympus completed 3 points in the last minute of the third quarter, there was not a big difference from the rest of the game. Highland struggled both offensively and defensively, but kept the Titans from scoring another touchdown.

In the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, Highland’s hopes were dashed when Olympus intercepted a pass. Hopkins then scored his third touchdown with a one-yard run and the Titans took an insurmountable lead. Both teams were unable to score in the last 11 minutes remaining in the game.

The frustration of the game was clearly visible on Highland coach Brody Benson’s face after the game. 

“Offensively, we’re not blocking; that’s o-line, that’s wings, that’s wide receivers,” Benson said. “Defensively, I don’t think that we’re doing a good enough job during the week preparing our guys to play at the speed we’re playing. It’s just frustrating right now.”

Even though the Rams worked hard, they could not keep up with the Titans. This surprised Highland offensive lineman Jaxon Miner, who was confident going into the game. 

“We thought we were gonna come out and do well and obviously we didn’t prepare as good as we thought we did and they surprised us and punched us in the mouth and we owe them one,” Miner said.

Highland will look forward and focus on their next region game against Cottonwood.