Game of the Week: Hillcrest opens Westmark Stadium with ‘Civil War’ win
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IDAHO FALLS — Hillcrest High School continued its dominance in the Civil War rivalry game with Bonneville High School, defeating the Bees 46-28 Friday.
The victory secured the Knights’ first win of the season and earned Hillcrest its 10th win in the last 11 Civil War matchups.
Perhaps more importantly, the Hillcrest program took a long-awaited step up with the debut of its new on-campus Westmark Stadium.
Hillcrest, which previously played its home games at Bonneville High, celebrated with an overflow crowd that had spectators standing along the fence line of the field and both sides of the stadium were packed with students and spectators.
“It was awesome,” Hillcrest quarterback Tyson Sweetwood said of the atmosphere. :All the fans showed up early. First home game. It was great.”
On the field, it was Sweetwood writing his name in the Hillcrest record books with the Knights’ first touchdown at home. His 16-yard scoring run on the game’s first series set the tone.
That nine-play drive was followed by a 10-play drive and capped by an 18-yard strike from Sweetwood to Jace Judy for a 15-0 Hillcrest lead.
Judy would finish with seven catches for 163 yards and three scores.
Bonneville’s offense finally got its chance in the second quarter as Brock Faulkner spearheaded a drive that took up most of the quarter. His 1-yard touchdown run cut the deficit to 15-7, but the Knights again took over and methodically rolled downfield to add to the lead as Titan Larsen punched it in from nine-yards.
Hillcrest (1-1, 1-0) controlled the third quarter and led 39-15 before Bonneville’s Keaton Trane took a kickoff and returned it 97-yards for a score with zero time left on the clock. But the Bees would get no closer.
“We wanted to put our foot on the gas from the start,” Hillcrest coach Brennon Mossholder said of the team’s fast start.
“We had some missed opportunities in this game,” Bonneville coach Shane Stephenson said.
Mossholder, who is in his fourth season at Hillcrest, said he’s been waiting from day one to finally get to play a true home game on campus. “The atmosphere was great … and I’m just proud of our guys.”
Hillcrest is at Thunder Ridge High School next Friday. Bonneville (0-3, 0-1) hosts Idaho Falls High School.