by Eli Badower and Dan Sheldon, seniors

The football team suffered their second defeat of the season on Friday, falling 23-14 to 7th ranked Maple Grove.  Adding injury to insult, backup quarterback Oscar Johnson, sophomore, broke his ankle and is out for the season.

Johnson’s injury thrusts Luke Hill, junior, into the starting role.  Hill started the season as the third-string quarterback.

“I don’t think Oscar’s injury will affect our season that much.  We still have Luke who’s a pretty good quarterback himself,” said Harry Momoh, junior running back.

The game started poorly for the Royals as Johnson threw an interception off the hands of Shaheed Hickman, senior, during the first play of the game.

Maple Grove running back Tahi Nomane, senior, was instrumental in the victory.  Nomane rushed for 296 yards and one touchdown on 28 attempts.  However, he fumbled on numerous occasions, with HHS recovering three of them.

Mental mistakes loomed large in the defeat, with the young and inexperienced Royals committing countless penalties.

“It was kind of disappointing.  We were the better team by far but we made so many mental mistakes on plays that could have helped us win the game,” Momoh said.

Things were looking up for the Royals when DT Williams, junior running back, scampered for a 49 yard touchdown on 4th and 2 with 3:09 remaining in the third quarter.  The touchdown brought HHS to within 3 points of the Crimson.

The Royals have a bye week next week before starting their conference season on the road against rival Minnetonka.