Hillsboro tops McClain in first meeting of season

HILLSBORO — In their first of two regular-season matches of the 2025 season, the Hillsboro Indians won Tuesday evening, as they defeated Highland County rival and Frontier Athletic Conference counterpart McClain by a 5-3 score at Hillsboro High School. 

The win by the Indians saw them outscore the Tigers 4-1 in the first half, but in the second half the Indians scored one final goal, while the Tigers scored two more goals in the final 40 minutes. 

Hillsboro scored their first goal within the first 10 minutes of the match for a 1-0 lead, then scored the next three goals at 30:37, 26:53 and 17:48 for a 4-0 lead. 

McClain scored their first goal of the match with 7:57 on the clock, trailing 4-1 at halftime. 

“Since the fair we haven’t played very well, so obviously it was good to get a win,” HHS head coach Ben Howland said. “Getting a win against a county rival like (McClain) is always a little better. They (MHS) played well and we played well, so it was a classic FAC game.

“I was proud of my boys. They’ve been pretty beaten up and have had some injuries. We’ve gotten the team mostly back. We still have a few missing, but hopefully we can make a late run in the second half of the season.”

In the second half, McClain scored two goals and the Indians scored one goal, with MHS scoring the final goal of the match. 

Goals scored by Hillsboro included a hat trick by senior Ryan Howland, followed by two goals by sophomore Easton Inman. HHS senior Cooper Swope collected three assists, while senior Dylan Bender and freshman Tyler Bender each had an assist for the Indians. 

Hillsboro keeper freshman Owen Davis finished the match with six saves. 

“We don’t have a lot of time for practices because this is our second game this week, and we have one more this week. We have three more next week, so we’ll have six games in 14 days, but there is really no time to adjust or anything,” Howland said. “We’ve switched up our formation some to get more offense, and it worked, but we still have some stuff to work on.

“When you bring players up on offense, you lose a little on defense, so things get a little hectic, but we’ll work on it when we do practice before our game against Miami Trace.” 

As for the Tigers, their goals, senior Creed Davis scored McClain’s first goal of the match in the first half with the assist by sophomore keeper Zayne Knisley. In the second half, McClain senior Brynnen Babbs scored both McClain goals in the second half.

“We scored goals tonight, and that’s been the issue,” McClain head coach John Gill said. “We scored one goal last week in three games, and that’s a recipe for losing games. We also had a couple of missed shots that should have went in that really would have changed what happened out there today.”

Gill also talked about having depth off the bench, including three keepers, those being Knisley, sophomore Ian Hill and sophomore Matthew Cummins. 

“Heading into the rest of the season, there have been a couple of adjustments we’ve made off the bench, and luckily I have players who have come in and put in really decent minutes,” Gill said. “I have a goal-keeping corps. I have three different goalkeepers, and they’ve all made saves. I don’t think any team around here has three goalkeepers who can all make saves. I’m very lucky about that.

“Again, I’m very happy about the second half that I saw. I think there is a new shape that needs worked, and I think that shape can work for us in our next game against Chillicothe because we played with them all the way to the end the last time we played.”

Next for McClain is their aforementioned game against Chillicothe on Thursday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. at CHS. 

The Indians are scheduled to host the Miami Trace Panthers on Thursday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. at HHS.