It was a homecoming four weeks in the waiting thanks to Hurricane Helene, unfortunately for Conner, the reschedule opponent was Highlands.
The Bluebirds dampened the parade, clicking on all cylinders in a 42-14 win over the Cougars. The victory clinched a home playoff game for the Bluebirds, earning the No. 2 seed in the Class 5A, 6th District.
Highlands racked up 545 yards of offense in the victory.
“Our kids played pretty much a complete game in all phases,” Bluebirds coach Bob Sphire said. “Our quarterback played a fabulous game. Had over 500 yards of offense and other than a couple of chunk runs by their quarterback I thought our defense played really well. It was probably one of our more complete games against a good football team.”
Mario Litmer threw for 333 yards and four touchdowns, Jackson Arnold and Tayden Lorenzen the biggest beneficiaries in Litmer’s use of his arsenal. Arnold snagged 10 balls for 161 yards and two touchdowns, Lorenzen with seven receptions for 67 yards and two touchdowns. The Bluebirds did this without their leading receiver on the season, Adam Surrey who was out for the game.
“Once we found out Adam was out I knew I had to step up big time,” Arnold said. “Rio played a great game, got me the ball and it was just a great team win. We dialed up some good stuff and I just had to get open and Rio was going to put it on me.”
Litmer’s been ramping up game by game, week by week. The “process” is often talked about in sports, so when the Bluebirds passing game struggled early on in the season, Litmer grew from it.
“It’s all a trust thing,” Litmer said. “Me and Coach Hayden (Sphire), we’re really close together and we sit down a lot during the week and just talk about what we can do to just make me a better person and player, and how I can be smarter mentally on the field. And I think he really sets me up week by week, just to progress and get better every week.”
On Friday it was on full display as he connected on 26-of-32 attempts, a few of those six incompletions were drops.
The running game wasn’t too shabby either as they totaled 212 yards in the rushing attack, spearheaded by Deven James with 19 carries for 101 yards and two touchdowns. Seven different receivers caught a pass, six guys got a rushing attempt for the Bluebirds.
“That’s a product of what we tried to do when we came here a couple years ago and that was build a total program,” Sphire said. “We’ve built a lot of depth, have a lot of guys that understand our system and have a high IQ. We trust them all to come in and roll in and play.”
Early on, Conner was amped and ready, evidenced by Wyatt Hatfield’s 67-yard run on the Cougars second play from scrimmage to give them an early 7-0 lead. Hatfield would finish with 212 yards rushing and two touchdowns, his other score on a 43-yard scamper and breaking numerous tackles.
“All the weeks I’ve had just this season, I think I’ve lost more sleep this week,” Sphire said. “I felt like a McCoy fighting a Hatfield all week in my sleep, and I had nightmares, and then the second play was like, was like the epiphany of my nightmares. Thank God the rest of the night we were able to minimize the damage.”
But that was it for the Cougars, their last gasp of momentum halted when they were trailing 35-14 and on the Bluebirds 3-yard line late in the third, but a fumble was scooped by Dominic Gregory and keeping their three-possession lead.
Conner was able to finish with 270 rushing yards, but the Bluebirds bottled that up for the majority of the night after Hatfield’s opening run.
“We just kind of like reset and really put our priorities towards the QB,” Bluebirds linebacker Thomas Hicks said. “It was just a mental thing, had to adjust mentally.”
Hicks name was called often over the PA, registering tackle after tackle.
Conner just couldn’t get the stops necessary to stay in this one.
“Got a couple guys injured and changed some things from a personnel standpoint,” Cougars coach James Trosper said. “Lost a middle linebacker and H-back, tight end and it changed some of our processing that we wanted to do on offense and had to play some sophomores on defense and we hadn’t had to do that yet this year.”
The loss now makes their path in the playoffs a difficult one. They’ll have to go on the road Week 1 of the postseason, the opponent still to be determined thanks to a well-balanced Class 5A, 5th District.
“Top to bottom, there’s not better district in the state,” Trosper said. “You got four teams that are competitive as all get out. Those games will have us prepared for those contests.”
Both teams close out their regular season next week. Highlands hosts Scott while Conner takes on Boone County.
Photo slideshow below, provided by Charles Bolton:
BLUEBIRDS 42, COUGARS 14
HIGHLANDS — 14-14-7-7 — 42
CONNER — 7-0-7-0 — 14
Scoring Plays
1st Quarter
(C) Hatfield 67-yard run (11:03) Herron kick
(H) James 12-yard run (7:45) Nickelman kick
(H) James 1-yard run (2:36) Nickelman kick
2nd Quarter
(H) Litmer 3-yard pass to Arnold (11:04) Nickelman kick
(H) Litmer 13-yard pass to Lorenzen (1:22) Nickelman kick
3rd Quarter
(H) Litmer 44-yard pass to Arnold (6:37) Nickelman kick
(C) Hatfield 43-yard run (4:58) Herron kick
4th Quarter
(H) Litmer 19-yard pass to Lorenzen (7:10) Nickelman kick
Game Stats
Passing Yards: Highlands 333 (Litmer 26/32, 4 TD, Harris 1/1), Conner 58 (Hatfield 5/16)
Rushing Yards: Highlands 212 (James 19-101, Williams 4-66, Grimm 2-25, Lorenzen 1-13, Litmer 1-4, Niemann 1-3), Conner 262 (Hatfield 22-205, Abernathy 9-31, Dozier 3-27, Caplinger 1-(minus) 1)
Receiving: Highlands (Arnold 10-161, Lorenzen 8-62, Feldbrugge 3-37, Carnahan 1-23, Williams 1-22, Grimm 3-15, Jacob 1-13), Conner (Caplinger 1-30, Abernathy 1-12, Depenbrock 2-12, Bailey 1-4)
Turnovers: Highlands 1, Conner 1
Penalties: Highlands 7-70, Conner 2-15
Records: Highlands (7-2, 3-1), Conner (6-3, 2-2)