Danville’s postseason magic ends in 25–20 heartbreaker to top-seeded Hillsdale

Danville left it all on the field in the regional finals Friday.

The Blue Devils, who barely made the Div. VII high school football playoffs, had been on a roll, winning three straight games to advance and were facing the top-seeded Hillsdale Falcons, a team that had beaten them a year ago in the state semifinals.

The Devils (8-6) battled back from two scores down early in the game at Ridgewood High School. But the Falcons were finally able to make a huge defensive play and hold on for a 25-20 victory to advance to the state semifinals this week.

“We had some chances there in the second half. Defensively, we had some chances to prevent them from getting in the end zone and we didn’t capitalize,” said Danville coach Matt Blum. “I’m just really proud of the way our kids came out and battled. That’s all that I asked them at halftime. I told them to come out and give me everything they had and that’s what they did. From where we were at in the middle part of the season after our Northmor loss to be able to get here and play a really tight game, nobody was thinking this was going to be like this.”

Hillsdale (12-1) showed why it was the No. 1 seed in Region 27 early on, stuffing Danville with its defense and rolling offensively behind the running of Owen Sloan. The senior running back scored on a 25-yard dash midway through the first quarter, then the Falcons got a second TD on a 25-yard pass from Kael Lewis to Hayden McFadden to jump out to a 13-0 lead.

“He (Sloan) is a phenomenal football player. He ran his tail off tonight. We’ve been playing against him since his freshman year. Thankfully, he’s graduating. Credit goes to him, he’s a heckuva football player,” Blum said.

Danville got one back early in the second quarter when Cyren Wallace broke free for a 53-yard touchdown run. That began a very explosive second quarter.

The Falcons responded with another long drive, capped off by a 3-yard run by Sloan. But Danville came right back with a TD with just 1:21 left in the half. Wallace was again the TD recipient, this time catching a 10-yard pass from freshman quarterback Parker Proper.

It looked like déjà vu for the Devils, though as Hillsdale marched right back down the field. The Falcons scored on the last play of the second quarter in last year’s meeting in the state semifinals and were trying to do it again this year.

But the Devils’ defense responded and forced an errant pass from Lewis on the final play of the half and the teams went into the locker room with Hillsdale leading 19-14.

Blum’s halftime speech fired up the Devils, who shut down Hillsdale on three straight plays to force a punt. A nice return from Briggs Wallace set Danville up at the Hillsdale 36-yard line.

Danville was quickly facing a fourth down, though, when Briggs Wallace came through with a highlight worthy catch to give the Devils a first down. On the next play, Proper hit Wesley Payne on a 20-yard touchdown pass and the Devils had their first lead of the game, 20-19.

That’s when Sloan took over again for Hillsdale.

The senior pounded through the Danville line time and time again, finally scoring on a 2-yard run.

Danville had its opportunities, though, coming up short on a fourth-down play twice in the second half. And then a bobbled pass turned into a Hillsdale interception as time was winding down.

“It just stings that our offense didn’t get that last opportunity. We had some chances there in the second half. Defensively, we had some chances to prevent them from getting in the end zone and we didn’t capitalize,” Blum said. “We were confident in our group, and we were just a couple plays away. Unfortunately, that’s what It’s been the last two years. But we’ll have our seniors coming back next year and we’ll have an opportunity to rewrite that.”

The loss closed the book on a stellar high school career from Danville’s seven seniors — Wesley Payne, Carson Proper, Ashton Spaulding, Landon King, Wade Nissley, Caleb Ferenbaugh and Billy Hood. That group played in a school record 57 games in their career, winning 44 of them, including 13 playoff games.

“Our senior class, that was their 57th career game. They’ve won 13 playoff games in their career. They were regional runner-up three times, they made it to the final four, they won a conference title. So, they have a lot to be proud of. It’s not just this moment, even though it hurts right now. Their career was outstanding. I’m proud to lead these men every day,” Blum said.

For the game, Cyren Wallace led the Blue Devils offensively with 116 yards rushing and a touchdown. He also caught two passes for 13 yards and another score. Proper finished the night completing 11 of 16 passes for 115 yards and two touchdowns, while Briggs Wallace had three receptions for 34 yards and Wesley Payne had two catches for 37 yards and a score.

“Our freshman quarterback (Proper) played absolutely out of his mind tonight. He played phenomenal. He’s a heckuva kid; he’s a heckuva leader on the football field. And along with all of our other kids,” Blum said. “I thought our kids came to play. We just couldn’t make enough plays there at the end. That’s what stings. I think we’ve made a lot of improvements throughout the season, trying to start to make those plays. It is what it is. I told these kids the sun is going to rise tomorrow.”

Defensively, Brycen Burke led the Devils with 10 tackles, including four for a loss and one sack. Cyren Wallace added 11 tackles, Jacob Byers had eight and Owen Gronberg had seven tackles and a sack.

“Our program battled through a lot of adversity this year and I’m extremely proud of our kids for the way they battled. We’ll be better because of it,” Blum said.