Rumors of a Highland meltdown? Completely unfounded.
At least according to coach Brody Benson. Sure, the Rams' tough loss to East likely had a few heads rolling, but after attending the Rams' walk-through on Thursday, it seemed all was quiet on the Highland front.
"You know, everyone is an expert," said Benson. "But we've moved on. We have to."
But if there is any trouble in the trenches, the players aren't letting on. After practice Thursday, team captain Sam Nielsen admitted the loss to East was hard to swallow.
"It was a tough loss. We handed it to them in the first quarter," he said. "No disrespect to them, they are a good team and fought for it, but we've got to finish a game through all four quarters."
During last week's practices, the Rams focused on improved defense in the red zone and playing with more urgency.
Highland proved it had digested the loss in its 34-8 rout of Granger on Friday.
Against East, quarterback Nick Orchard and the running back duo of Travis and Bridger Walzer carried the Leopards on their shoulders.
But the Rams pulled together a concerted team effort to beat the Lancers - and they didn't wait to make it happen. Highland uncharacteristically racked up all of its 34 points in the first half and relied on the staunch defense of Latu Heimuli, George Heimuli, and Travis Walzer to hang on for the win.
After suffering an injury in the first quarter against East, "spark player" Muli Kinikini was back to score the Rams' last touchdown of the game in the second quarter.