By John Rittenhouse
Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth's football team continued to pick up steam during an early-season run that continued Friday night.
Facing winless Lake Benton in a Southwest Ridge Conference game played in Ellsworth, the Patriots scored 37 unanswered points through three quarters and went on to beat the Bobcats by a lopsided 43-8 margin.
Quarterback David Top threw a pair of touchdown passes to receiver Brad Haak, and running back Chris Reid ran for 193 yards and two touchdowns to lead the H-BC-E offense.
The Patriot defense recorded a safety in the game while blanking LB through three quarters. When the game was complete, the Bobcats were limited to a total of 148 yards.
All things considered, it was a great homecoming performance for the Ellsworth faithful and H-BC backers.
"We played pretty well," said Patriot coach Dan Ellingson. "We played real well defensively. The key was our defensive linemen controlling the line of scrimmage. That freed up our linebackers to come up and make some tackles. We did some nice things on offense, too. Our linemen did a good job of coming off the ball hard, which allowed our backs to run four or five yards before being touched."
With the Patriots executing well on both sides of the ball, the stage was set for a third consecutive victory to start the season. H-BC-E is 2-0 in the SRC, leaving it involved in a four-way deadlock for first place.
The Patriots wasted little time in taking control of the game Friday in Ellsworth. H-BC-E received the opening kick and put together a long scoring drive that featured the conversion of two fourth-down situations into first downs.
Top hit Haak for a 12-yard touchdown pass to cap the drive, and Tyler Bush added his first of three straight extra points to make it a 7-0 game.
The H-BC-E offense was unable to score over the rest of the first quarter, but the Patriot defense did add two points to the cause.
After a punt by H-BC-E pinned the Bobcats down on their own one-yard line, Haak penetrated the LB line to tackle a running back in the end zone for a safety on the first play from scrimmage.
Reid, who averaged more than 11 yards per run with 17 carries in game, put the game out of LB's reach by halftime.
The Patriot junior scored on runs of 71 and 18 yards during the second quarter. Bush added extra points after each touchdown run to make it a 23-0 difference at the intermission.
H-BC-E continued its 37-0 run by scoring 14 points in the third quarter.
After forcing the Bobcats to punt to start the second half, H-BC-E's offense put together a drive that ended with Top connecting with Haak for a six-yard score. When a pass for a two-point conversion fell incomplete, the Patriots were left sporting a 29-0 advantage.
The Patriots made it a 37-0 game with their third possession of the third quarter.
EHS student Chris Tiesler gave his hometown fans something to get excited about when he scored on a 21-yard touchdown run before hauling in a successful conversion pass from Bush.
The teams exchanged touchdowns in the final 12 minutes of play.
Jason Schwong ran for a two-yard touchdown and Tony Miller carried in a two-point conversion when LB ended H-BC-E's scoring run early in the fourth quarter.
Lee Jackson capped the scoring when he found the end zone at the end of a 35-yard run for the Patriots.
H-BC-E will be gunning for its fourth straight victory when it plays 0-3 Edgerton in Edgerton tomorrow.
"Edgerton runs a lot of the same things it did last year," Ellingson said. "They like to use an unbalanced line and pull out some trick plays on offense. We have to be ready for some non-conventional things when we're on defense. Offensively, we have to win at the line of scrimmage."
Team statistics
H-BC-E: 344 rushing yards, 33 passing yards, 377 total yards, four penalties for 25 yards, 14 first downs, three turnovers.
LB: 116 rushing yards, 32 passing yards, 148 total yards, two penalties for 27 yards, eight first downs, two turnovers.
Individual statistics
Rushing: Reid 17-193, Jackson 4-45, Jordan Scott 4-33, Kevin Van Batavia 11-40, Tiesler 3-29, Jesse Leuthold 2-8.
Passing: Top 4-13 for 30 yards, Bush 1-1 for three yards.
Receiving: Haak 3-27, Tiesler 2-6.
Defense: Schilling 10 tackles and one interception; Darin DeBoer nine tackles, Van Batavia two tackles and two sacks, Brant Deutsch three tackles and one sack, Matt Buck two tackles and one fumble recovery.