Week Ten Showcase Match-Up: Oxford at Hill City

Coming into the second weekend of the playoffs we start seeing some big time match-ups and I was honored to be able to scout the (8-1) Hill City Ringnecks hosting the (7-1) Oxford Wildcats in a 8-Man I West action. Hill City's lone loss came to #2 Trego County 30-20 in week one. While Oxford lone loss came to #1 South Central 66-20 in week eight.   Hill City is one of the ball clubs that is built like your typical 8-Man power. They may not have the biggest kids across the board but they have plenty of speed and aggression. Leading the way for the Ringnecks is seniors [player_tooltip player_id='1466491' first='Tate' last='Balthazor'] (5-foot-10, 155-pounds) and Tyler Ashbaugh (5-foot-9, 165-pounds). Both possess a lot of speed and quickness for Coach Travis Desbien. Balthazor has over 2,000 all-purpose yards on the season. He has thrown for 1140 yards and rushed for 962 yards in 10 weeks of action. Overall he has 34 touchdowns on the season. Ashbaugh on the other hand has rushed for 989 yards and has 222 yards receiving. Touchdown wise he has 24 scores for the Ringnecks.   Another big weapon for Hill City is sophomore receiver [player_tooltip player_id='1433326' first='Jaxson' last='Smith'] (5-foot-9, 170-pounds) who has over 500 total offensive yards on the season. Other players to keep an eye on for Ringnecks are senior Ryan Budig (5-foot-8, 140-pounds), junior Slade Rohr (5-foot-9, 172-pounds), sophomore [player_tooltip player_id='1623217' first='Briggs' last='Born'] (5-foot-8, 185-pounds), senior Aiden Hall (5-foot-8, 220-pounds) and senior Koby Keiswetter (6-foot-0, 230-pounds).   As for the Wildcats of Oxford they are led by junior [player_tooltip player_id='1597293' first='Logan' last='Gaither'] (6-foot-2, 195-pounds) who has rushed for 1184 yards and 20 touchdowns on offense and registered 93 tackles on defense. Gaither shows good speed, strength and has a definite burst on both sides of the ball. Coach Kyle Westerman is blessed to have Logan back next year and he will be one of the more heavily looked after 8-Man kids in the state this coming season. Both seniors Xzavier McClamy (5-foot-6, 135-pounds) and Chase Douglas (5-foot-10, 155-pouds) were skilled weapons for the Wildcats and will be sorely missed next season.   Other players to watch for Oxford were junior [player_tooltip player_id='1248293' first='Dahzael' last='Castillo'] (5-foot-8, 215-pounds), junior [player_tooltip player_id='1343607' first='Tyler' last='Brown'] (6-foot-5, 257-pounds), sophomore Dwyane Fountain (6-foot-0, 167-pounds), senior Pearson Rush (6-foot-0, 200-pounds) and senior Wyatt Gaither (5-foot-11, 160-pounds).   I was eager to see how the Ringnecks stacked up to Trego County after having seen them play earlier this season against Hoxie. Not to mention their week one clash where Trego County won 30-20 has not gone unnoticed since Hill City has not lost all season and Trego County still remains unbeaten. Lets just say they did not disappoint in this playoff game.   Oxford started the game with the ball and the Ringnecks immediately went to work defensively shutting the Oxford offense down quickly. The Wildcats punted to Hill City with 9:43 in the first quarter and [player_tooltip player_id='1466491' first='Tate' last='Balthazor'] returned the punt back 70-yards to set up first and goal from the Oxford's 5-yard line.   Hill City struck quickly with a 5-yard touchdown run by Tyler Ashbaugh with 9:39 in the first quarter. The 2-point conversion was successful and our score was 8-0 Hill City.   With 6:59 in the first quarter the Ringnecks got back on the board with a 3-yard touchdown run by [player_tooltip player_id='1466491' first='Tate' last='Balthazor']. The 2-point conversion was no good this time and now our score was 14-0 Hill City.   The Ringnecks defense came up big with 1:22 in the first quarter when they turned the Wildcats over on downs while they were driving. This was the closes Oxford came to scoring all night. Hill City took over from their own 8-yard line but disaster struck for the Ringnecks as they gave the ball right back setting the Wildcats up on the Hill City 14-yard line. Unfortunately for Oxford, they were not able to advance the ball with much luck.   Hill City showed a little razzle dazzle when they scored on a 31-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Ashbaugh to [player_tooltip player_id='1466491' first='Tate' last='Balthazor'] on a double reverse pass with 8:27 left in the second quarter. The 2-point conversion was good and that brought our score to 22-0 Hill City.   Balthazor continued his stellar play with a interception of Chase Douglas pass with 7:35 left in the half. That set up a 27-yard Balthazor touchdown pass to [player_tooltip player_id='1433326' first='Jaxson' last='Smith'] with 4:12 remaining in the second quarter. Yet another successful 2-point conversion and the score was 30-0 Hill City.   Oxford quickly turned the ball back over to the Ringnecks when Balthazor forced yet another turnover and recovered a Xzavier McClamy fumble. Hill City set up shop on the Wildcats 27-yard line.   The duo struck again with another 27-yard touchdown pass from Balthazor to Smith with 3:53 left in the half. The 2-point conversion was no good and that proved to be a big failed conversion. Hill City lead now 36-0.   When it looked like Hill City was driving to score once again, the Wildcats forced a Ringneck fumble with 1:17 left in the second quarter. The Wildcats started from their own 39-yard line.   Oxford was not able to get anything going and allowed Hill City one more score opportunity before half. Ryan Budig rose to the challenge and plunged in from 1-yard out with :09 left in the half. The 2-point conversion was good but the Ringnecks were one point shy of ending this ball game at half. Our score was now 44-0 Hill City.   After a wonderful half-time entertainment, Hill City received the ball coming out of the half and finished off this game with a 16-yard run by Tyler Ashbaugh with 9:25 in the third quarter.   (9-1) Hill City comes out victorious 50-0 over (7-2) Oxford. Now the Ringnecks waited to see who they would face between (9-0) Trego County and (5-4) Kiowa County.   Due to the 6:00 PM start in the Hill City vs. Oxford game, I was able to get down to WaKenney for the second half of that game since it started at 7:00 PM.   Kiowa County kept the Golden Eagles within arms length in the first half but Trego County exploded in the second half and won going away 64-18. [player_tooltip player_id='1609451' first='Jack' last='Conness'] stole the show with 229 yards rushing and 5 touchdowns. This set-ups the week one rematch between the now (10-0) Trego County and (9-1) Hill City. The winner was this game will face the winner of the (10-0) South Central Timberwolves and (8-2) Wichita County Indians ball game.   As for myself I'll be heading back East to watch the (9-1) Ell-Saline Cardinals host the (9-1) Lincoln Leopards in Brookville this coming Friday. The Cardinals only loss on the season came to the hands of the #1 team in 8-Man II in the (10-0) Hanover Wildcats week one 32-8. Lincoln on the other hand only loss came against (6-3) Clifton Clyde in week eight action 48-44. Players to keep an eye on for the Cardinals is [player_tooltip player_id='1618530' first='Kas' last='Kramer'], Reese Krone and Collin Dent. As for the Leopards you need to keep an eye on Xavier Miler, [player_tooltip player_id='1113297' first='Jeremiah' last='Miller'], [player_tooltip player_id='1604524' first='Benjamin' last='Bell'], [player_tooltip player_id='1566706' first='Brody' last='Shearer'] and Kolten Miller.

Coming into the second weekend of the playoffs we start seeing some big time match-ups and I was honored to be able to scout the (8-1) Hill City Ringnecks hosting the (7-1) Oxford Wildcats in a 8-Man I West action. Hill City's lone loss came to #2 Trego County 30-20 in week one. While Oxford lone loss came to #1 South Central 66-20 in week eight.