The Highland Huskies struggled to find their footing on opening night as they fell to 0-1 at the hands of the Martensdale St. Mary’s Blue Devils by a score of 13-0.

The tone of the game was set early, as the first Highland drive of the game ended with a blocked punt and a turnover on downs inside the Huskies’ own ten yard line.

The defense held stout, though, shutting down Martensdale St. Mary’s and forcing a three-and out. The Blue Devils were unsuccessful on a fourth down conversion and gave the ball right back to Highland. The game stayed right there for a long time, as the Huskies failed to get a first down throughout most of the first half and the Blue Devils couldn’t punch the ball into the end zone.

Martensdale seemed for a moment like it was about to go up 7-0 late in the first quarter, but a last-second pass breakup by junior cornerback Tyler Pierson prevented the score, as he sprinted up behind the Blue Devil receiver and swatted the seemingly guaranteed touchdown away.

From there, Highland looked momentarily like it had found some offensive momentum, as an 11-yard pass from starting quarterback Caleb Wheeler to Pierson gave the Huskies their second first down of the night and kicked off what looked like a   promising drive, but on third and long Wheeler looked for Pierson again deep, airing the ball out down the Highland sideline and into the arms of the Blue Devils’ Brady Baker for an interception. Five plays later, Baker broke the tie as he took a handoff to the left hash mark and into the end zone. An extra point later, it was 7-0 Martensdale St. Mary’s, which remained the score headed into halftime.

The Huskies once again showed flashes on their second drive of the second half, marching the ball into plus territory for the first time all night, but a mishandled handoff led to the team turning the ball over, and once again the Blue Devils capitalized on the mistakes of the Huskies.

A defensive pass interference call extended the ensuing St. Mary’s drive, and the ball was put on the four by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Highland bench, which was frustrated with the fourth-down flag.

Sophomore fullback Ira Hawk then took a fullback dive, a staple of the night for the Martensdale offense, and spun back to his right to find a gap on the hashmark and dive into the end zone, making it 13-0. A poor snap led to a missed extra point, keeping the margin where it was.

Husky running backs Aiden Yoder and Hunter Siebel showed the final two sparks for the Highland offense, gashing the opposing defense for 22 and 33 yards, respectively. The drive stalled out from there, though, as they turned the ball over on downs and Martensdale ran out the rest of the clock to end the game.

Yoder led the way with 39 rushing yards on 8 attempts, while Siebel’s 34 weren’t far behind on just two attempts. The Huskies’ secondary showed out throughout the night, as they broke up 6 passes over the course of the game, including two PBUs apiece for Pierson and fellow junior DB Presten Smith.

Highland Head Coach Cory Quail discussed the secondary’s impact, “[Pierson] is a guy who when I send film off to other coaches who want to run a system similar to ours, he’s the teach tape. He does everything perfectly, fundamentally, and he communicates to everybody on the team. Presten’s the same way, love the kid, I’ve got a nickname for him, ‘Little Richard Sherman,’ because he just looks like that a little on the field and plays like that in our defense. Those are guys we can rely on, and I think they did a very good job tonight.”

The win was Martensdale St. Mary’s first since 2023.

The Huskies will return to action next Friday as they take on Wapello.