In his final regular season game, senior running back Dillon Philmon broke the school record for yards rushing in one game with 349 and five touchdowns to lead the Cadets to a 34-24 victory over Rush-Henrietta. Hilton locked up the fourth seed in the Section V Class AA playoffs with the win.
“It’s obviously great to set a record, but it was never a goal of ours,” Philmon said on the sideline. “The goal was to win the game. All year you don’t see big names in the paper, it’s just Hilton every year and every week. We’re 6-1 and going into sectionals we feel good.
“The whole (offensive) line is incredible. They’re not the biggest kids, but they are super-athletic and tougher than anybody in the section. They work so hard and they make me look so good.”
That line is senior center Michael Murphy, senior guard Devyn Nieskens, sophomore guard Nathan Whybra and senior tackles Justin Clayton and Cole Comden.
Philmon had touchdown runs of 11, 60, 53, 48 and 46 yards. Most of those runs started off-tackle before he took it wide to escape would-be tacklers.
Senior Justin Resseguie broke up a pass attempt on fourth down to end the first Royal Comets drive. Their second drive ended with a fumble recovery on third down by Nick Millgate.
Hilton converted on the ensuing drive highlighted by a 33-yard scamper by Philmon on third down two plays prior to his first touchdown run.
R-H returned the kickoff for a touchdown to tie the game 6-6, but the Cadets returned with a four play scoring drive on Philmon’s 60 yard run off right tackle on the first play of the second quarter.
Resseguie intercepted a ball in the end zone on the next Royal Comets possession which led to a five-play, 80 yard scoring drive for the Cadets capped by a cut-back 53 yard Philmon TD run. Resseguie took the two-point conversion around the right end to give Hilton a 20-6 advantage at halftime.
In the third quarter, Philmon again ran off right tackle to 48 yards and, with Christian Ranke’s extra point, a 27-6 lead.
R-H put together a 72 yard drive to cut lead to 27-12 at the start of the fourth quarter, but Hilton responded with their own drive. Junior quarterback Johnathan Letta scampered for a 27 yard run on second down before Philmon surpassed the 300-yard rushing mark with a 46-yard touchdown run and his fifth of the night.
The Royal Comets scored on their next two possessions to make it seem close, but their onside kick attempt in the closing seconds was recovered by senior David Guest to end the threat.
Philmon finished with 349 rushing on 27 carries while Letta gained 54 yards on 15 plays. Donald Neuffer led the Cadets with nine tackles on defense while Millgate added eight.
The previous rushing record was held by Justin Knorr, who gained 311 yards rushing in one game in 2008. Philmon rushed for 308 yards two years ago in the Section V playoffs against Webster-Schroeder.
“We’ve been playing good football all year and we had to play fantastic tonight to beat Rush,” head coach Rich Lipani said. “We’ve had a lot of guys contribute this year and our offensive line was fantastic and Dillon ran as good as I’ve seen him run—ever.”
Prior to the game, a moment of silence was held in memory of eleven-year old Andrew Rohloff of nearby Northwood Elementary. The team also wore decals with “AR” in white letters during the game. Nic Rohloff, Andrew’s older brother, is in his sophomore year at Hilton.
