By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
With a stable of weapons in the slot and split wide, Webster Schroeder senior quarterback Drew Hilfiker says his job is really pretty easy.
“I just have to get the ball in their hands,” Hilfiker said.
Truth be told, however, there’s a little more to it than just sitting back in the pocket and lofting spirals down the field.
A first-year starter, Hilfiker is showing he’s quite adept at eluding the rush, or avoiding defenders as he rolls out, and even better at slinging the ball – from a variety of arm angles – where it needs to go.
Which explains how Hilfiker threw for 324 yards and five touchdowns as the Warriors (2-0) rolled past visiting Eastridge (0-2), 42-14 in a Section V Class A matchup on Friday night.
Gavin Horton scored four touchdowns, three on passes from Hilfiker, while Justin Maier and Tyler Washington each caught TD passes for the Warriors, who have piled up 84 points in the first two weeks of the season.
“It’s a great feeling to know we have so many options,” Hilfiker said. “We expect to score every time we’re on the field.”
On Friday against Eastridge, they scored touchdowns on four of their first five possessions and on six of their first eight, with Hilfiker completing 16 of 21 passes.
“You look at our receivers and there are some threats,” Schroeder coach Michael Stumpf said. “Gavin and Justin are two of the best slot receivers in Section V, and I think Tyler Washington is one of the best receivers in the section on the outside.”
Thus, it’s a bit of quandary for Hilfiker: Who does he throw to? It’s an even a bigger puzzle for defenders: How do they cover everyone?
“We’ve got so many weapons and our lines gives Drew so much time,” said Horton, a senior.
Schroeder needed just six plays to march 57 yards for a touchdown on the game’s first series, capped by Hilfiker’s 14-yard scoring strike to Horton in the front left corner of the end zone.
“I just got open and Drew put the ball in a great spot,” Horton said.
The Warriors actually went backwards on their second possession. They started at their own five and ended up taking a safety when the snap sailed out of the end zone, cutting their lead to 7-2.
But after the defense forced a three-and-out punt by the Lancers, Schroeder drove 77 yards in only seven plays. A Hilfiker to Washington strike accounted for 27 yards, then Hilfiker found Maier wide open over the middle on third-and-five for an uncontested 31-yard catch-and-run TD and 14-2 lead.
Horton was also all alone behind the defense on the same play as Schroeder caught Eastridge in the wrong defense, or in Schroeder’s case, the right defense.
“It was third-and-five and we figured they were going to be aggressive,” Stumpf said. “We had shown quite a bit that we would throw to the guy in the flat so we thought that play would work.”
Said Hilfiker: “They tried to trick us a little bit but I was reading those rotations and knew I just had to get the ball to him.”
A 12-yard TD pass to from Hilfiker to Horton 1:43 before halftime gave the Warriors a 21-8 lead, and the cushion became 28-8 midway through the third quarter after a two-play scoring drive. Maier scampered 60 yards on a catch-and-run strike, then Horton ran the ball in from the 10 on the next play.
Amere Rodgers and Elijah Harris scored touchdowns for Eastridge, both the ground.
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