10/01/2022
BY JACK BULLOCK
BRIDGEPORT - The Red Hill Salukis are enjoying their first season playing as an Independent.

The kids now have even more excitement as they are playoff eligible for the first time since 2018.

Head coach Billy Gray, after two-consecutive losing seasons, has his program going in the right direction and they took another step forward on Saturday by taking care of old Little Illini Conference rival Marshall on Saturday afternoon in their Homecoming game.

The Salukis scored on their first offensive play from scrimmage and never looked back in a convincing 35-7 romp to improve to 5-1 on the season.

Coach Gray got a superb performance from his defense as they kept the Lions off of the scoreboard until the final quarter.

How dominant were the Salukis?These Dawgs dwarfed the Lions in every statistical category as they sent Marshall to its sixth straight loss this season on Saturday.

Five-nine junior quarterback Hayden Arbuckle got Red Hill off to a great start.

Arbuckle was 4-of-11 for 63-yards, including a 39-yard TD strike to senior Jacob Powden to start the offensive day off on the right foot.

Seven different Red Hill runners rushed for positive yardage on the day with 5-7, 120 junior Reece Ralston netting 85-yards on 13 attempts leading the charge, including a pair of touchdowns in the first half as the hosts made sure that the Homecoming game would end up in the win column.

Not only did Powden catch the first TD score, he added an additional 51-yards on the ground on eight attempts.

Arbuckle contributed 44-yards on eight carries and 5-9, 165 junior Sam Stimler also got in on the fun with five rushes for 47-yards.

While Red Hill was potent on offense, it was the defensive effort that took control of the game early and kept Marshall out of the endzone until there was 3:04 left in the contest.

Physically the Salukis dominated.

“The one thing about it, if you follow Red Hill football very long you will find that even with our teams that only won one game, the other teams get hit. It's something we teach here and it is a physical sport and we want kids tackling and being aggressive,” said Coach Gray. “Seems like every year we have some hitters but this year we have a few more.”

Not much went right for Marshall and head coach Jared Boyll.

The Lions started a different quarterback this week as the coaching staff changed offenses to try and break a long losing streak.

Five-ten junior Kaden Matzke took over the signal calling duties this week as he and his teammates were 'learning on the fly' in Week Six.

Unfortunately the result wasn't much better than the previous five games this season as Marshall stayed winless in 2022.

Matzke ended up 6-of-11 passing for 46-yards but he was intercepted twice, sacked four times and hurried on most of his passing attempts as the hosts turned up the pressure on the junior for the entire game.

Matzke was the top ground gainer for the Lions as well with 87-yards on 16 runs.

After a three-and-out on its first possession after taking the opening kickoff, the Lions punt netted just 12-yards which gave the Salukis great field position.

Marshall then gave up the first TE on Red Hill's first offensive snap.

Arbuckle found Powden open over the middle and the senior receiver made a nice move, broke a tackle and then sprinted the rest of the way into the endzone for the first points of the game on a 39-yard TD.

A fake extra-point turned into a two-point conversion.

Holder Drayden Pentell, a 6-0 senior, took the snap and then threw a pass in the left side of the endzone to Powden for two-points and an 8-0 lead at the 9:25 mark of the first quarter.

Things didn't get any better for Marshall.

On the first play from scrimmage on its next possession, freshman running back Lucca Giannavola was stripped of the ball by Stimler.

Red Hill's Dylan Aten, a sophomore defensive back, covered the fumble at the Marshall 18-yard line.

After three runs on three plays, and facing a fourth-and-one at the Marshall nine, Ralston took a handoff and went up the middle through a big hole untouched for the second score of the game.

Red Hill junior linebacker and kicker Silas Parrott tacked on the extra-point for a 15-0 lead with just under five minutes elapsed in the first frame.

“It has been a struggling part for us this season getting on teams early. We have a lot of play-makers but we tend to get off of the bus slow, per-se. But today, after I harped on that all week and we didn't have a good week of practice, they sure showed up today for homecoming game and played hard,” said Coach Gray.

Marshall got its first first down of the game on its next try on its biggest play of the first half.

Matzke finally got some time as he dropped back to pass as he found junior tight end Luis Lopez on down the right sideline.

The pitch-and-catch was good for 21-yards into Red Hill territory at the Salukis' 32.

But a holding penalty moved the ball back and Matzke next pass resulted in an interception by Powden, setting up the hosts for another drive.

Marshall's defense finally got a stop, this time taking over on downs at their own 20.

Another penalty and a near sack of Matzke forced another Lions' punt.

Red Hill went 40-yards on 10-plays to add to the scoring.

The first seven plays were running attempt and then Arbuckle connected on a pass to Ralston to get the ball to the Lions' 19.

Two consecutive Marshall off-sides penalties got the ball to the nine where Powden and Ralston finished the drive on runs of four and five yards respectively.

The Ralston run was right up the middle through the Lions' line for a touchdown.

Another PAT kick from Parrott pushed the advantage to 22-0 with 6:14 left in the half.

(CONTINUED)
The best drive of the first half by Coach Boyll's club occurred right before halftime.

Two runs by Matzke; one on a scramble for 20-yards, another for 13-yards were followed by an eight-yard pass to senior wide out Ethan Hendrix.

One more run by Matzke reached the Red Hill 13-yard line for a first down.

But at this point, Red Hill's defense made a stand.

Freshman defender Justice Bowman came up with a big sack of Matzke for a nine-yard loss.

The following play was another sack, this time by Stimler, which left Marshall with a third-and-29.

After an incomplete pass forced a fourth-and-long, Matzke was brought down on a run but a face mask penalty on Stimler pushed the ball up to the Red Hill 13.

In high school football rules, a personal foul face mask isn't an automatic first down, leaving Marshall with another fourth down.

This time Stimler got to Matzke again and sacked the junior for a loss back to the 25-yard line as the Salukis took over on downs with 1:09 left in the second quarter.

Red Hill moved the ball to its own 47 before a stalling as the half ended with the Salukis up 22-0.

“We committed to going after him (Matzke) when we saw that he was going to be their quarterback and Coach Lyles (defense) had the game plan and the kids took care of the rest,” said Coach Gray. “We have been on them (our kids) that we have to take advantage of the other teams' mistakes and we did that today. As the season moves on and we hopefully get into the playoffs and in a playoff-type game you have to tack advantage on the opponent mistakes if you can.”

Coach Gray couldn't have drawn up a better offensive possession to start the second half for his team.

Taking the second half kick, Red Hill used 13-plays to go 68-yards for their next score.

More importantly the Salukis burned nearly seven minutes off the clock.

Powden, Arbuckle, Ralston and Stimler all carried the ball and ate up yardage and time.

Facing a fourth-and-six at the Marshall 19, the Lions gifted the hosts five-yards on a off-sides penalty before Ralston picked up the first down on a three-yard run.

With first-and-goal at the eight, 6-0, 190 senior running back Wyatt Cox took care of the rest with three-straight runs.

The third try was right up the middle for a one-yard TD with 5:15 left in the third.

Although the PAT attempt by Parrott was blocked by Marshall junior lineman Kyle Turner, the Dawgs were in control at 28-0.

Marshall did move the ball on the next possession but they turned in back over on downs.

Red Hill capped its scoring on an 11-play, 65-yard crusade which overlapped into the fourth quarter.

The biggest play was an Arbuckle option pitch to Ralston who went down the left side of the field covering 37-yards to the Marshall 23.

Facing a fourth-and-two at the Lions' 15, Arbuckle kept the drive going with a run up the middle to the Marshall 11.

A seven-yard pass from Arbuckle to Powden was followed by Powden taking the ball into the endzone on a four-yard run to the right side of the endzone.

The PAT by Parrott closed the Salukis' scoring with 9:02 left at 35-0.

Powden made one more big play as he intercepted his second pass of the day, stopping the next drive by Marshall.

Against the second unit, Marshall stopped Red Hill the next time and got the ball in scoring range.

The Lions recovered a Saluki fumble at the Red Hill 28.

A 15-yard run by Matzke for a TD kept Marshall from being shut out.

A PAT kick from sophomore Jona Zcisk closed the scoring at 35-7 with 3:04 left.

The total offense figures were as lopsided as the score.

Red Hill had 363-yards in total offense compared to just 143 from Marshall.

Defensively Aten not only recovered a key fumble to give his Salukis a possession but he and Cox led Red Hill with six solo tackles each.

Senior linebacker Bryce Barker had four solo tackles while Ralston, Arbuckle and Stimler had three apiece as they made things rough for Marshall on Saturday.

Red Hill has three games left with a road game at Casey-Westfield next Friday, a home game against Lawrence County rival Lawrenceville and then a road trip to 1A Carlyle to close out the regular season.

Playing a schedule more suited to the size of school that they are now, Red Hill is flourishing as an Independent this season after some struggles the past two seasons against the 'not-so' Little Illini Conference.

Marshall will face Newton on the road, Casey-Westfield at home and close out with a home game against Lawrenceville as they will try to break a 33-game losing streak before the season ends.

“We have five Saturday afternoon games this year, mainly because of a lack of officials, but I like the atmosphere. It's like a college game and the fun of it,” said Coach Gray. “We should be ready for that first Saturday playoff game.”