TOLONO - Unity head football coach Scott Hamilton said Althoff Catholic (4-0) was the best team he has coached against in his career.
Hamilton told the team after the game that, having coached over 400 games, there has only been a handful in which he thought every player on the field would have to play at their absolute best to even have a chance of winning. Friday night's game against Althoff, which brought three Division I recruits to town, was one of those occasions.
The Rockets' roster (2-2) proved they were up to the task in the 53-52 loss to the Crusaders.
It was a record-breaking game for the Rockets.
Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks
Dane Eisenmenger looks for open receiver under pressure during the first half. A junior, he threw 548 yards, connecting 27 of the 42 attempts for seven touchdowns.
Taking advantage of Unity's overflowing stable of receivers, Unity quarterback Dane Eisenmenger, who already led the passing stats with a 455-yard game against Mt. Carmel last year, finished with a career and program best of 543 yards. Eisenmenger completed 27 of his 42 passes against the Crusaders.
Receiver Tre Hoggard amassed a program-best 266 receiving yards, breaking a 34-year-old record held by Jeff Vail, who had 219 yards during Unity's 1990 game against Schlarman.
Unity's offense also reset the mark for the most yards in a game from 639 yards to 666 yards, of which 543 were produced thanks to their stable of seven sticky-fingered receivers.
To date, Friday night's game was the highest-scoring game ever played at Hicks Field. The combined score of 105 points exceeded both Unity's 61-42 win over Pontiac in 2017 and last year's 56-46 semifinal playoff loss to Mt. Carmel.
Althoff, which lost its semifinal game to eventual 1A winners Camp Point Central in 2023, was led in scoring by 5-foot-11, 188-pound Oregon commit Dierre Hill Jr. Hill ran for 255 yards and caught four passes for 48 yards. The senior scored five touchdowns, the last on a nine-yard pass to set up the Crusaders' game-winning two-point conversion with seven seconds left in the non-conference contest.
Dierre Hill, Jr. bounce out of the backfield late in the fourth quarter. The elusive Oregon commit was hard to bring down thanks to his incredible balance and ability to change directions on a dime. The senior scored five touchdowns and 11 yards every time he touched the ball. See
more Sentinel photos here.
Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks
Hill scored his first two touchdowns in the first quarter, the first on a 68-yard gallop six and a half minutes into the game and the second on a five-yard run nearly four minutes later to give Althoff a 14-0 lead.
"Honestly, he is the best player I've ever coached against in 33 years," Hamilton said. "There is a reason that kid is going to Oregon."
With just over two minutes left in the first quarter, Eisenmenger hit a wide-open Tre Hoggard on a 31-yard pass play, closing the scoring gap to one touchdown after the extra point by Emmerson Bailey.
Althoff responded with another touchdown courtesy of a 36-yard run from Jayden Ellington, leaving 21 seconds and a 21-7 score on the board in the east end zone.
Unity's Tre Hoggard out runs Althoff's Lorne Green during the second half. Hoggard finished the game with 266 receiving yards and four TDs on 12 catch. He also tacked on six rushing yards on two carries to his stats on Friday.
Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks
Like two prizefighters throwing heavy hands and neither backing down, Unity put the ball in the east end zone again as time ran out. Garrett Richardson sprinted 76 yards to make the score 21-14.
Unity and Althoff continued to slug it out, both teams scoring two touchdowns in the second quarter to start the second half at 35-21.
"I give a lot of credit to our kids. We had so guys go out with cramping and few things here and there," Hamilton said, proud of how well his team played against an obviously talent program. "We had other guys step up and just kept battling. I just don't have enough great things to say about our kids, our coaches, our plan, and how the kids executed."
He add, "We just wanted to keep throwing punches at them and see what we could get."
Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks
Emmerson Bailey celebrates after hitting his 34-yard field goal in the 4th quarter. Bailey, who contributed 10 points in the loss, also went 6-for-6 on PATs.
Hamilton and his staff made some defensive adjustments that held the Crusaders scoreless in the entire third quarter. Meanwhile, the Rocket offense delivered two passing touchdowns to end the third quarter at 35-all.
With the ball spotted around the 27-yard line and unable to pick up a first down, the Rockets called Emerson's number. The senior, who was already 3-for-3 on PATs, booted a 34-yard field goal between the uprights for the go-ahead score, 38-35.
"I'm really glad the pressure didn't get to me," Bailey said. As went out to make the kick, he said he kept his head down and tried not to look at the crowd in order to control the anxiety he was feeling as much as he could. "I didn't look up once. I just put my head down, and did what I do."
In the remaining 10 minutes and 44 seconds left in the game, the Rockets scored two more times via the Eisenmenger-Hoggard connection.
The Crusaders bookended a field goal with two touchdowns from Hill. Hill scored on a 26-yard run and on a nine-yard pass to trail Unity 52-51 with seven seconds remaining in the game. He then went on to score on the two-point conversion for Althoff's road win.
