Highland’s comeback attempt falls just short in home opener against Eagle

POCATELLO — The first test issued at Highland High School this year came Friday night, nearly a week before classes were called to session, when the Rams hosted the Eagle Mustangs in a battle of top-five 6A squads.

Given pass-fail, a 33-28 loss means the Rams (0-1, 0-0) failed that test. But, according to head coach Nick Sorrell, it’s more layered than that.

Sorrell said after the game that the first thing he addressed in the post-game huddle was how proud he was of the fight the players showed after going down 33-21 with less than four minutes left.

Backed into a corner, Highland scored a late touchdown. Then, after forcing a punt, the Rams had the ball at midfield with 30 seconds left before stalling out and and eventually falling to Eagle (1-0).

“The effort and the no-quit that they showed throughout that game — we could’ve packed it in when we got down by 12 in the fourth quarter,” the coach said. “I knew this team had that stuff in them, just based on how they worked in the offseason. We just made too many mistakes against a really good football team.”

Some of those mistakes were obvious: a turnover and allowing Eagle to convert six times on fourth down. Some were less noticeable, like a missed block on a perfectly set-up screen pass late in the first half that may have cost Highland a touchdown.

But there was plenty of good that Sorrell and the Rams can take going forward.

Highland came into the game as the 6A division’s No. 4-ranked team, according to the first media poll of the season, with Eagle slotted just ahead of the Rams at No. 3.

“This was No. 3 versus No. 4 in the state, and that was a great game — you couldn’t ask for anything better in Week 0 than for it to come down to the last 30 seconds of the game,” Sorrell said.

Several Highland position groups aced their individual tests.

The offensive line, facing a larger Eagle team, did not allow a sack and limited the Mustangs to only a handful of pressures while the run game was saddled with lost yards on just three plays — and one of those on a high snap. The wide receiver group left its mark on the game, with 20 catches for 185 yards between them. And the running backs, specifically senior Cedric Mitchell, carried a heavy workload.

One part of the test that proved to be an issue for the Rams was stopping Eagle on fourth down.

The Mustangs converted on all six of their fourth-down attempts, leading to three of their five touchdowns.

Overall, Sorrell was happy with the way his defense played, but admitted that the fourth-down failures definitely impacted the outcome.

“Those are the things that — we stop just one or two of them, and it’s a different game,” he said.

One of those successful fourth-down attempts produced what proved to be the deciding score.

With 3:48 left in the game, Eagle running back Bowen Blackburn took the hand-off on a fourth and three and broke through the Highland defense, then scampered 16 yards to the end zone.

But, as Sorrell said, Highland was far from done fighting.

Needing just nine plays, the Rams answered with a 70-yard touchdown drive — with just two minutes and 15 seconds bleeding off the clock.

Because of how quickly they scored, the Mustangs needed a first down in order to run the final 1:29 off the clock — with Highland holding just two timeouts.

Not only did the Rams force the three-and-out they needed, Eagle made the questionable decision to pass the ball on third and seven. The clock stopped as the pass fell incomplete.

The Rams took over possession at their own 37, with 63 yards to cover and 1:07 left on the clock.

Quarterback Jacob Vincent hit wideout Easton Almond for 12 yards on the first play of the drive. After an incompletion, Vincent connected with the other wide receiver, Kona Baldwin, for six more yards. But a holding and another incomplete pass set Highland up with a fourth and 14.

Vincent looked over the middle senior Kellan Tingey, but the two were not able to connect, and Eagle took over on downs.

The Rams were giving up size at nearly every position on both lines, but that wasn’t the only size mismatch they faced.

A massive Eagle receiver group included 6-foot-6 Landon Bult, 6-foot-4 Aiden Kindrick and 6-foot-3 Hudson Komma. The Highland secondary struggled with the size of the Mustangs receivers in the first half, surrendering 123 yards and just three incompletions before halftime.

They made the necessary adjustments and limited the Eagle passing game to 71 yards in the second half.

Eagle’s junior quarterback, Jace Dahlgren, finished the game completing 20 of 29 attempts for 194 yards and two scores. He also carried the ball twice for 53 yards, including a 40-yard second-quarter scramble.

Blackburn took his 26 carries for 112 yards and two scores.

Vincent, who completed eight of 17 pass attempts for 71 yards in the first half, finished with 241 yards while connecting on 25 of 40 throws.

Mitchell, who has been Highland’s offensive leader since he was a sophomore, opened his senior season with 88 rush yards, 56 receiving yards and three scores.

Baldwin hauled in eight passes for 90 yards, while Almond finished with 48 yards on seven catches.

Highland turned the ball over once, a fourth-quarter Vincent interception. Defensively, the Rams snatched one takeaway, when junior Carter Thurman was the first to the ball after Eagle punter Mason Crawford lost possession on an attempted rugby-style kick.

Overall, while Highland did not ace its season-opening test, the result wasn’t as simple as pass-or-fail. There were things the Rams did well, Sorrell said, but also things they will have to improve going forward.

But that, the coach added, is why he likes to build difficult schedules: so they ask tough questions and get difficult answers early in the season, that way they are prepared for their tough conference season.

“This was a big test for us,” Sorrell said. “Now we can take those answers that we have, and we can learn from them.”