Burros cruise to title

GRAND FORKS — The combination of a smash-mouth running game and a stingy defense brought Hillsboro its first state football title of the modern era on Friday.

The Burros rushed for 377 yards, and limited top-ranked Williams County to 151 total yards en route to a convincing 46-8 victory in the North Dakota 9-man championship game at the Alerus Center.

“It’s a good way to finish in the championship game,” said Hillsboro senior fullback Andrew Grothmann, who had 159 yards and four touchdowns on 11 carries. “We didn’t expect to come out on fire like that. … It wasn’t a goal because we hadn’t won one. We just wanted to come out and play hard. We took care of business.”

The Burros (12-1) dominated from the start, using its triple-option offense to move down the field in big chunks.

Grothmann raced 39 yards on his third carry of the game to give Hillsboro a 6-0 advantage less than three minutes into the game. He then had touchdown runs of 38 and 41 yards to give the Burros a hefty 22-0 lead before the end of the first quarter.

“He does what he does,” Hillsboro coach Mark Rerick said of Grothmann. “If there is a kid on our team right now who deserves to be asking to get 30 carries a game it should be him. But he never has.

“We were really hoping on this stage he would come out and show who he is. And he did.”

Hillsboro 46, Williams County 8

Hillsboro 22 8 8 8 — 46

Williams County 0 0 0 8 — 8

H—A. Grothmann 39 run (run failed)

H—A. Grothmann 38 run (Horne pass from Meyer)

H—A. Grothmann 41 run (Z. Grothmann run)

H—Meyer 30 run (A. Grothmann run)

H—Burg 54 pass from Meyer (Z. Grothmann run)

WC—Solem 2 pass from Lalim (Solem pass from Lalim)

H—A. Grothmann 2 run (Boeddeker pass from Meyer)

Indifidual leaders

RUSHING: H, A. Grothmann 11-159, Meyer 18-88, Z. Grothmann 11-87. WC, Lalim 17-35, Hove 8-13,.

PASSING: H, Meyer 4-6-0 141, Zink 0-1-0 0. WC, Lalim 14-29-1 100.

RECEIVING: H, Horne 2-64, Burg 1-54, McLean 1-23. WC, Solem 6-49, Perdue 5-42, Weyrauch 2-10, Vejtasa 1-(-1).

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Tags: high school, dakota bowl, williams county, football, championship, hillsboro