GRAFTON, N.D. — In the opening game of North Dakota’s high school football season on Thursday night, Grafton had the advantage in the passing game with 6-foot-4 quarterback Kyler Droog and 6-foot-5 wide receiver Reggie Rice.
However, all other advantages lay with Hillsboro-Central Valley.
The Burros converted two interceptions into touchdowns and scored three touchdowns in the second quarter en route to a 40-6 victory over Grafton.
“This is a great start to the season,” said Burros senior Ty Muller.
In the last four minutes of the first half, the game turned around.
After Grafton fell behind 13-0, the team regained momentum with a 38-yard pass from Droog to Rice, cutting the Burros’ lead to 13-6 with 3:32 left in the second quarter.
After a three-and-out by the Burros, Muller intercepted a ball from Droog and scored a 33-yard touchdown. His teammate Wyatt Johnson scored a 70-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
Muller’s goal gave the Burros a 19-6 lead with 1:32 minutes left before halftime.
Chelsea Wysocki / Walsh County record
On Grafton’s next offensive play, the Spoilers botched a handoff in the backfield and H-CV’s Jack Mattson took advantage of the loss of the ball at Grafton’s 20-yard line.
Four plays later, on the first down and goal from the 1, Muller scored a rushing touchdown to give H-CV a 26-6 lead in the final seconds of the first half.
Grafton’s first drive of the second half started promisingly: Droog found receiver Shaiden Thomas for 18 yards, Rice for 12 and Thomas again for 13 yards.
However, Droog was intercepted again, leading to a Burros charge that was capped by a 1-yard touchdown run by Sawyer Owens and a 33-6 lead.
“We’ve been focused on the fact that mistakes happen and things don’t always go the way we want them to,” said H-CV coach Joe Johnson. “The question is how we react when something goes wrong. That happened a few times. We lost a ball early in the game but then got a stop.”
“We always talk about commitment and attitude. We can control that ourselves. I’m happy with the overall performance tonight. We were counting on the seniors to play.”
Droog finished the game completing 16 of 28 passes for 202 yards, including 126 yards on seven catches by Rice.
It was more difficult to find space in the running game, as running back Lee Roy Delgado ended up with 51 yards on 19 attempts.
The Burros defense didn’t demand much of their offense. The Burros threw for just 36 yards, but took advantage of balanced running opportunities from Muller, Owens and Carson Kozojed to capitalize on turnovers.
“We knew Grafton was an athletic team,” Johnson said. “We’re not going to have an easy game on our schedule. We knew Rice was an athletic kid and they had a great quarterback. We knew that from last year. Other than that, our secondary is made up of three guys who were linebackers until this year. They give us confidence with their physicality as linebackers, regardless of the size disadvantage.”
Chelsea Wysocki / Walsh County record
