It wasn’t the start that Highland wanted, but the Huskies showed some resiliency in the second half of a 24-12 season-opening loss to East Buchanan on Friday. 

Trailing 16-0 late in the third quarter, quarterback Connor Grinstead broke a tackle near the line of scrimmage and weaved his way across the field 81 yards to put the Huskies on the scoreboard. Co-head coach Scott Morel credited a cutback block from Brenton Bonebrake for turning the big gain into a touchdown. 

“We showed we can play,” Morel said. “There were a lot of good things. If we were able to run plays and make sure that the guys sustained blocks — once we did that we were able to move the ball really well.”

Grinstead led the Huskies with 152 rushing yards on 14 carries, and also finished with a team-high 10 tackles. 

East Buchanan scored its first points of the second half with 3:27 left in the game, taking a 24-6 lead. 

Highland answered 19 seconds later with a 62-yard touchdown pass from Grinstead to Logan Bonebrake. 

“The catch by Logan was huge,” Morel said. “Just to give them the confidence that we can throw the ball a little bit. And it was nice to see that they continue to fight.”

Bonebrake finished with two catches for 83 yards, and had 30 yards on the ground. 

In the first half, the Huskie offense moved the ball into East Buchanan territory three times, but all three drives ended with a turnover. 

The Buccaneers took advantage of the third Highland turnover, driving 60 yards to go up 16-0 with 43 seconds left in the half. 

The Huskies turned the ball over a fourth time on the first possession of the second half to give East Buchanan great field position at the Highland 34. The Buccaneers moved the ball to the goal line, but the Huskie defense came up with a huge turnover of its own. 

Trevor McFarland recovered a fumble in the endzone to keep the Huskies within striking distance. 

“I thought we responded really well,” Morel said. “We talked about fighting back, just continuing to fight.”

Senior Luke Miller made plays on offense, defense, and special teams. He recovered a muffed punt to set the Huskies up 24 yards from the end zone in the third quarter. Miller then made a great 24-yard touchdown catch that was called back due to holding. It was his second catch that was negated by a penalty. Miller also had seven tackles and recovered a fumble in the first half, forced by Yahir Jimenez. 

Carson Netser finished with nine tackles while Devin Lovetinsky led the Huskies with 2.5 tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

 “Defensively, we were in the right places, we’ve just got to finish plays,” Morel said. “A lot of guys did a lot of good things and we had some kids that stepped up.  You saw Jaden Schmid, he came and played some linebacker and really opened my eyes, I thought he did some really good things.”

The Huskie defense stood up to the much bigger offensive line of East Buchanan for much of the game. The Buccaneers went backwards six yards on their first three rushing attempts. East Buchanan began its second possession at the 10-yard line, but senior Adam Hackett got to the sideline and went 59 yards. Highland did not allow a touchdown, but the long rush flipped field position. A 43-yard touchdown drive put East Buchanan up 8-0 with 9:54 left in the second quarter.

The Buccaneers finished with 351 yards on the ground and threw just three times, completing one pass for 23 yards and throwing one interception to Brenton Bonebrake.

The Huskies travel to Columbus Junction on Friday to take on the Wildcats, who defeated Louisa-Muscatine 9-6 in overtime in week one.