Longhorns ground Eagles; win district title

The Holcomb Longhorns swept through district play, finishing off the Hugoton Eagles, 27-12 on a chilly, damp night. While the offense sputtered at times, partly due to the conditions and mostly due to the aggressive Hugoton defense, the Longhorn defense stuffed the Eagles repeatedly, giving up only 3 first downs all night. On 9 possessions, Hugoton punted 7 times, 6 after three-and-out, and committed 1 turnover.

Meanwhile, it took Holcomb until the 2nd quarter to get untracked. On their third possession of the night, the Horns drove 55 yards in 10 plays, mostly on the ground, with Brandon Stegman rolling in from 5 yards out for a 6-0 lead. Holcomb got the ball back after a three-and-out and drove 62 yards in 10 plays and Stegman capped the drive again, this time with a 6-yard run, and Holcomb was up 14-0 after the 2-point conversion.

Hugoton finally scored when quarterback Valentino Degollado hit Zack Leininger for a 62-yard catch and run. After trading turnovers, the two teams went to halftime with Holcomb leading 14-6.

The teams traded punts on the first four possessions of the 2nd half and then Holcomb drove 59 yards in 10 plays, as Stegman scored his 3rd TD of the night, again from 6 yards out. With Trey Teeter’s point-after kick, the Longhorns led 21-6 after three quarters. Midway through the 4th quarter, Holcomb struck again with Dillon Williams finishing off a 9 play, 56 yard drive from 1 yard out. On the TD run, Williams was initially stuffed behind the line of scrimmage but pushed away from the would-be tackler and dragged a defender into the end zone to make it 27-6 in favor of the Longhorns. The Eagles would wrap up the scoring on a 6 yard run by Degollado.

Hugoton drops to 4-5, 2-1, in district play and qualifies for the playoffs as the district runner-up. The Eagles travel to Colby for the first round on Friday. Holcomb improves to 7-2, 3-0 in district play, and will host Concordia Friday night. Kickoff will be at 7:00 PM, with our pregame show on the air at 6:30 on AM 1030 KBUF.