With Hendrix Johnson of Boulder Creek running the opening kick off back, it appeared Highland High School was in for a competitive bout.

Highland coach Brock Farrel wasn’t shocked with the outcome.

“We kicked it to their best football player,” said Farrel. “None of our coaches were surprised. That’s what happens when you shank a kick.”

The completive bout, however, only lasted for the first two quarters. The  Hawks soared all over the Friday night lights defeating the Jaguars 70-20.

Highland led 42-20 at halftime. However, the game looked closer than the score indicated. Both teams played sloppy, but the Hawks stuck to their game plan of running the ball.

During halftime, Farrel had a message to his defense that grabbed its attention.

“D-Line stop playing with the offensive linemen and get into a pass rush,” said Farrel. “Make the quarterback uncomfortable.”

Uncomfortable is what his defense did to the Jaguars the second half. The Hawks forced several mistakes by Boulder Creek quarterback Caden Austin.  That included an interception and several turnovers.

Senior quarterback Kaleb Herbert felt his team let Boulder Creek hang around in the game too long.

“Let’s just go bury them and keep them out of this game.”

Burying them the Hawks did, outscoring the Jaguars 28-0 in the third quarter on all four of their drives.

Offensive tackle Kolten Allen said his linemen came together leading to scoring  multiple rushing touchdowns in the second half.

“The last two quarters we played as a unit,” said Allen.

Herbert ran for a touchdown and threw for two more to lead his team to another victory.

Highland moves to 3-0 but senior running back Kohner Cullimore knows his team can improve.

“There’s always little stuff to work on so we are going to focus on those enjoy the win tonight but starting tomorrow and next week we are going to fix the little things,” said Cullimore.

Next Friday Highland travels to Skyline for another non-league game to take on the Coyotes (1-2). Kick off is 7 p.m.