WAPELLO 

With less than two minutes left in their regular season finale the Huskies, who put up over 40 points over Wapello, knew victory was at hand, but there was still work to be done. 

Still batting to keep Wapello off the scoreboard, Highland wanted to send off its talented class of 12 seniors with a shut-out victory. To make this desired outcome a reality, one of those seniors, Ayden Havel, came up with his first interception of the season to end the game and give the Huskies a 43-0 road win on Oct. 18. 

“Ayden has been so tough with the injury he had during soccer. To see him be able to end the game with that interception and be able to put the zero on the scoreboard to preserve that goose egg, that’s something really awesome to see,” Highland football head coach Cory Quail said about Havel’s INT that preserved the shut-out over Wapello. 

For the third time this season, Highland’s defense kept their opponent scoreless, and Highland wrapped up its season with a 4-4 record, the most wins for the program since 2019.

“It’s a testament to the time and effort that these guys have put in here for the years that we’ve been here,” coach Quail said about how much work the players on his team have put in over the years. “They’ve really bought into the identity that we want to have.” 

Highland’s identity, playing a brand of unselfish football where every player plays for each other, has been coming together over these past three years and it was this year’s senior class who laid down the groundwork. 

“There’s not enough you can say, absolutely love those guys. I got 12 of them. I wish I could highlight every single one of them,” coach Quail said about his senior class. “It really is just a testament to the identity of what those guys are, what their character is, and what we’re building.”

In his final game playing for Highland, Sage-Hartley Norman put together an efficient performance through the air and a first-rate performance on the ground. 

After a quiet first quarter where the only points scored was a Highland safety, Hartley-Norman accounted for three TDs in the second quarter, two rushing and one passing, to put Highland up 20-0 at the half. 

Looking like a track star, Hartley-Norman’s second rushing went for 41 yards. As a team, Highland rushed for 340 yards and ending with a team leading 175 yards on 16 carries was Hartley-Norman. 

“Sage made some huge runs,” coach Quail said about Highland’s rushing performance against Wapello. “The guys up front, the guys that don’t get enough credit, you got Kleese and Brody Miller up there as seniors, and Hamilton Krotz, Jacob Schneider coming out this year as a sophomore and Louis Horak on the back end.”  

It was a senior-to-senior connection on Hartley-Norman’s passing TD as it was caught in the endzone by Havel. In addition to his INT, Havel led Highland in receiving yards (37).

Highland came out of halftime by adding nine points to its lead and this time around it was Jose Ramirez who led the charge on both sides of the ball. 

Creating havoc on defense and playing with a real ferocity on offense, Ramirez scored a rushing TD and accounted for a safety for Highland in the third. 

“It shows us that we have a future. [Ramirez] is a dog. He’s a different animal,” coach Quail said about Ramirez. 

The sophomore ended his night with a team high three QB sacks and accounted for 5.5 total tackles. On offense he rushed for 48 yards on seven carries.  

Through three quarters everything was coming up Huskies and the fourth quarter kept up this trend. Finding the endzone for the first time this season not just once but twice was Logan McFarland. 

With one quarter left before his senior season came to an end. McFarland rushed for two TDs with his second one giving Highland its final score of 43, a season high.  

Ending the season on a positive note, Highland aims to continue to its upward trend next season, but they do say goodbye to its senior class of Hartley-Norman, Havel, McFarland, Jared Diaz, William Dunbar, Issac Thomann, Colten Sypherd, Brixton Rust, Isaac Kleese, Angel Avendano, Brody Miller, and Louis Horak.   

“We got all those guys in there that are doing a wonderful job for us. They want to go in and they just want to be successful and play team ball. It’s great to see that as a coach.” coach Quail said about his team. “Just guys who have put in time, effort, dedication, I can’t thank them anymore. I’m speechless a little bit.”