BY NOLAN RUTH
X – @RealNolanRuth
ROCKWALL— The Highland Park Scots started the 2024 high school football season as well as any team can, with a win. On the strength of a 24-point first half, the defense took over in the second half to secure a 34-21 victory over Rockwall-Heath.
“I think Heath has a really fine football team,” head coach Randy Allen said after the win. “We both made a lot of mistakes but I thought our defense played well…we gave up a long run, a kickoff return and a long pass at the end, but we made some big plays ourselves…we just have a lot of things we’ve got to work on…”
The Scots defense played very well in the season opener, holding the Hawks to just 1-for-8 on third down, and creating two big first half turnovers.
After punting on the opening drive, the defense forced a fumble on Heath’s first play from scrimmage. That allowed quarterback Buck Randall to come back on and lead a 10-play, 68-yard drive that was capped off when he found Cannon Bozman in the end zone for the 12-yard touchdown.
Both teams traded punts before the end of the quarter, giving Highland Park a 7-0 lead as the teams switched sides. On the third play of the second quarter, it appeared Heath was going into the end zone, but Landen Dutka’s pass was intercepted by Angus Wall at the one yard line. Wall ran right into the Hawk offense but kept his feet and, thanks to some blocking, took the interception back 99 yards for the pick-six.
“I kind of blanked out on the run,” Wall recollected the play in question. “I don’t know how long it was, but when I got to the 30 my legs were dead. I just remember the last defender jumping at my ankles and I tripped into one of my teammates and just fell over.”
The interception return sparked a second quarter that saw a total of 31 points scored. The Hawks responded on the ensuing kickoff, as Jaylon Rochell took the ball in the end zone, found a seam and outran the Highland Park coverage to put Heath on the board at 14-7.
The Scots stalled deep in Hawk territory on their next drive, but Sutton Stock nailed a 46-yard field goal to extend the lead. Then, Ashton Bradford responded, taking a hand off 69 yards to pay dirt to pull Heath within three.
Finally, Highland Park finished off the half with a 71-yard drive over 10 plays that took just one minute and 49 seconds off of the clock. Randall took charge of the drive, and capped it off with a 17-yard pass to Harrison Cullum on fourth-and-goal, ending the half with a score of 24-14.
The defenses took over from there, as all the Scots could manage in the third quarter was a 33-yard field goal by Stock.
Randall polished off his performance in the fourth quarter with a two-yard keeper into the end zone. The sophomore signal-caller finished with 183 yards on 17 completions and two touchdowns, adding the final score on the ground.
The Hawks managed one more touchdown from 25 yards out when Dutka found Shawn Gary for the score. Highland Park then recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.
Highland Park (1-0) will be at home next Friday, Sep. 6 to play the Lucas Lovejoy Leopards, Heath (0-1) will go on the road that same night to face Prosper (0-1) who lost to Austin Westlake on Thursday night.
