“Let’s go get a statement win.” That was the mentality of junior quarterback Kyren Eleby as SLUH came home from a hard-fought loss to St. Ignatius in their season opener last week. Facing the Hillsboro Hawks, a team who last year went 12-2 and won their district championship, the Jr. Bills looked to feed off of the energy of the Running of the Bills to catapult them to victory. They ultimately succeeded, snatching a 24-17 win from Hillsboro with a late fourth quarter touchdown under the Friday night lights.

Before the game began , the Hawks set a fire inside the Jr. Bills by disrespectfully stomping on the Jr. Billiken logo at the 50-yard line.

”Our guys played with a chip on their shoulder,” said head coach Adam Cruz. “They wanted to prove that they’re better than the effort they put forward against Ignatius. And when Hillsboro stomped on the Billiken, our guys took that pretty personally.”

As a stampede of blue-bellied Jr. Billikens stormed into the stadium, senior kick returner Matthew Moore opened up the game with a strong 25-yard return. The presence of these rowdy, painted freshmen was heard all game long.

“There wasn’t a single point in the game where the energy was down,” said Eleby. “Their intensity and noise really kept us in it.”

A combination of the electric crowd, hurry up offense, and a series of short runs from sophomore Quincy Jones pushed the Jr. Bills downfield. But an early illegal-hands-to-the-face penalty moved the offense back to their own 20-yard line to make it third and 21.

SLUH’s first offensive breakthrough came on the very next play with the Jr. Bills pinned deep in their own territory. On a long ball from Eleby, junior wide receiver Zach Allen ran a post-corner for a 40-yard gain. 

With a roar from the student section, the Jr. Bills marched into Hillsboro’s territory. However, they were left empty-handed as they turned the ball over on downs after three incompletions. 

The Hawks took the field with 7:45 left to go in the quarter, led by dual threat quarterback and North Dakota State commit Preston Brown. 

After a quick Hillsboro first down pickup, the Jr. Bills, commanded by senior three-star recruit Landon Pace and junior defensive lineman Sebastian Tate, swarmed the Hawks for a loss. After a failed deep shot, the Hawks were also forced to punt. 

“I was really excited about how we executed, especially defensively,” said Cruz. “Every week you put in a game plan, but if you don’t execute, it doesn’t matter.”

The Jr. Bills took the field on their own 28-yard line, led by junior running back Jordan Taylor. In his freshman season, Taylor racked up 360 yards for six touchdowns. After missing the whole 2023-24 season with an ACL tear, Taylor looked to bring a new dimension to this year’s Jr. Bills’ offense. 

“The atmosphere was great for coming back,” said Taylor. “I put in a lot of hard work in the offseason, and a lot of people don’t see the behind-the-scenes so it was definitely cool for it to pay off.” 

On his first carry in over a year, Taylor found a hole and broke multiple tackles for a pickup of 10. Despite this momentum, the Jr. Bills were forced to punt once again after two lackluster running plays and a botched snap. 

The Hawks continued to rely on Brown’s elusiveness as they called three straight QB runs. On fourth and 2, Brown ran it once again and was met at the line by a pack of pursuing SLUH defenders but narrowly gained the first down. 

Junior defensive tackle Albert Reinberg invaded the backfield, tackling the Hawks ball carrier for a pivotal loss of two. On the very next play, Tate pursued the running back for another loss of yards, closing out the first quarter with the score tied at 0-0.    

SLUH began the second quarter on their own 30-yard line following a punt from Hillsboro. The Jr. Bills were quickly frustrated by multiple penalties that pushed them back 15 yards into their own territory. Eleby tested Hillsboro’s defensive backs with another deep throw to Allen, but the pass was just out of Allen’s reach. With three straight incompletions, the Billikens’ first drive of the quarter came to a swift close.

On the punt return, Brown picked up 35 yards and set Hillsboro up at SLUH’s 27-yard line. A tenacious second down rush from Brown netted 16 more yards, but SLUH’s defense regrouped and held Hillsboro to no gain on the next two plays. On third down, junior captain Keenan Harris deflected Brown’s pass in the flat that forced a field goal on the next play for the Hawks, making it 3-0 in favor of Hillsboro.

After trading punts, SLUH received the ball on the 50-yard line with five minutes to go in the half. Breaking through Hillsboro’s stout defense, Jones charged forward with a five-yard and a 15-yard gain.

With time winding down in the half, Eleby hit Pace on a nine-yard slant and then senior Levi Miller for a first down reception. 

After Jones and Taylor wore Hillsboro down on the ground in the following sequence, Eleby looked to Pace again for an end zone throw, but it fell incomplete. Eleby then took the ball himself and was rewarded with a first down inside the three-yard line. 

The stadium erupted as Taylor capped off the phenomenal drive with a gritty touchdown run, the Jr. Bills’ first of the game. 

Hillsboro ran out the remaining 35 seconds of the first half, and the Jr. Bills headed to the locker room with a narrow 7-3 lead. 

With the sun setting behind the Science Center, the Jr. Bills charged onto the field, looking to sustain the momentum from their late touchdown. The Jr. Bills defense overwhelmed Hillsboro early with a quick three and out from the Hawks and a near interception to Moore.

On the punt return, Moore turned the corner for a pickup of 12 to give SLUH the ball at their 41 yard line. Spinning his way in and out of defenders, Taylor picked up nine on first and 10 to set the Jr. Bills up for a screen pass to Allen that gave the Jr. Bills the first down. The offensive line continued to power the run game on as Taylor pushed forward with two strong runs.

On Hillsboro’s 35-yard line, Eleby dropped back into the pocket and launched a bomb to a striding Zach Allen, meeting him in the end zone for an electric touchdown that made the scoreline 14-3. This chemistry between Eleby and Allen has been brewing for years. 

“We’ve been playing with each other since like seventh grade and working out with each other almost every single week during the offseason,” said Allen. “We’ve built that connection from playing JV together our freshman year, so being able to showcase it our junior year is really awesome.” 

The Hawks responded quickly and proceeded to pound SLUH on the ground with two gains of 10 from Hillsboro running back Chris Duncan and a strike across the middle into SLUH’s territory. With the Hawks on the Jr. Bills 36, Brown read the defense on a fake handoff and tiptoed down the sideline to SLUH’s 10-yard line. After a SLUH penalty, Brown took it in himself with a two-yard rushing touchdown to cut the SLUH lead to 14-10.

Looking to respond, Eleby fired another deep shot to a sprinting Allen, who barely missed the pass. However, the Jr. Bills danced down the field with a first down pickup by Allen, and a series of short runs from both Jones and Taylor put the ball in Hillsboro territory.

Eleby checked down to Keenan Harris, who plowed through a duo of Hawks defenders, putting the Jr. Bills in striking distance of another touchdown. Now in the red zone, Eleby looked to freshman tight end Tyler Kozminske in the endzone, but Kozminske was hit hard by a Hillsboro cornerback and the ball fell to the turf. Senior Christian Ziegler kicked home a field goal to extend SLUH’s lead.

On their next possession, Hillsboro slowly moved upfield in short rushes as they had all game long. Once again, the defensive duo of Reinberg and Tate overwhelmed the Hillsboro line for a three-yard tackle for a loss, slowing the Hawks momentum. 

With the fourth quarter running down, Hillsboro turned up the intensity with a 12-yard reception to senior Keiten Pipkins and a 32-yard rush from Duncan, which could’ve been longer if not for a great tackle by Moore.

Moore did it all for the Jr. Bills, both as a returner, but especially as a leader on the defensive side of the ball. With 10 tackles on the year already, Moore’s leadership really shined.

“My main thing was making sure I kept the energy high,” said Moore. “Whenever a big play happened I made sure that the guys stayed level-headed.”

Inside the red zone, Hillsboro was pushed back by a false start penalty, but a fierce run earned them a first down and goal. Duncan darted to the goal line but was stopped there by Moore. Another spectacular defensive effort held Hillsboro out until they ultimately went in for the score, tying the contest at 17 apiece.

On the next possession, Allen started the drive off by picking up yards after the catch. He took SLUH to Hillsboro’s 31-yard line with a first down reception and picked up another ten yards on the next play. Allen finished with eight receptions for a total of 134 yards.

Following a first down from a Jones rush, SLUH took their time as they neared the end zone. With just two minutes on the clock and four yards to cover, Eleby faked the hand-off and snuck through the Hillsboro defense to give the U. High a late 24-17 lead.

“Every week we practice the four minute drill, which is where you try to both score and take time off the clock so that the opponent doesn’t get the ball back,” said Cruz. “We executed a four minute drill perfectly both at the end of the first half and at the end of the game. We had the ball at about 5:30 in the first and six minutes in the second. Both times they got the ball back with under a minute left. Kyren, especially, did a great job of managing the clock, moving the chains but also making sure that if Hillsboro got the ball back, it wasn’t going to be in a great situation.”

Sure enough, Hillsboro was faced with little time to organize a drive that would tie the game. As a result, multiple rushed inaccurate throws downfield led to a turnover on downs with about a minute left on the clock.

With the offense in victory formation, Eleby took a knee on the final play, and the Bills closed out the game with a thrilling 24-17 victory. 

“We always talk about what the biggest change is between Week 1 and Week 2,” said Cruz. “We started a couple guys for the first time who played well in their first game. Defensively, we held Preston Brown, who’s a top 30 player in the area, to 4-for-13 passing and 34 yards. That’s a really good quarterback, and our guys kept stepping up to the challenge. I was really proud of our grit.”

Coming home again, SLUH looks to face Jesuit foe De Smet who have started off the year 2-0 after beating Creighton Prep (Omaha) and MICDS. At the helm for the Spartans is Kansas State commit Dillon Duff. For the third week in a row, SLUH will have to put forward a consistent effort to contain a star-studded offense.

 “Like it was with Ignatius and Hillsboro, they’ve got a fantastic quarterback. We have to keep him under control and keep them from taking over the game. Against Ignatius we didn’t do that, but against Hillsboro we did, so hopefully we do it again with Dillon Duff, who is a great football player,” said Cruz. 

“Our main focus is to stay level-headed. We know that they are gonna get some big plays off, but we can’t drop our heads after those plays,” said Eleby. “We know it’s gonna be a battle all game long, but we’re ready.”