Highlands defeats Hampton, gets needed help to qualify for WPIAL playoffs

By: Adam Lindner
Saturday, October 28, 2023 | 12:03 AM

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Highlands entered senior night with a lot on the line. Playoff implications, of course, were the main topic of conversation Friday night at Golden Rams Stadium.

Highlands needed a win over Hampton, plus help from Kiski Area, if it hoped to reach the postseason. Not only did Kiski Area need to beat Armstrong, the Cavaliers needed to win by at least four points. Highlands, meanwhile, needed to beat Hampton by double digits.

Complicated? Yeah.

The Golden Rams (5-5, 3-3) outlasted the Talbots (3-7, 3-3) in both teams’ regular season finale, 42-26. Kiski Area, meanwhile earned an eight-point win over Armstrong. Highlands enters the postseason as the No. 4 seed from the Class 4A Greater Allegheny Conference.

Luke Bombalski ran for 166 yards and three touchdowns, bringing his career rushing total to precisely 3,000 yards. Bombalski is the second player in program history to reach 3,000 yards, joining Elijah Jackson, said Mike Choma, Highlands’ statistician and television analyst.

“This was a great game for us,” Highlands coach Matt Bonislawski said postgame. “Some things didn’t go our way in the first half, and you know what, we didn’t fold.”

Awaiting the Armstrong-Kiski Area final, Bonislawski was unsure whether or not his team would be postseason bound as he spoke postgame.

He was proud regardless.

“We’re getting better as a program, playing four quarters and playing Golden Rams football,” he said.

Bonislawski’s squad scored a touchdown on the game’s opening drive. A holding penalty wiped out what would have been a 54-yard touchdown run for quarterback Aaran Randolph, but Randolph later managed to find an open Aiden Burford for a touchdown.

Penalties thwarted Hampton’s first drive. Or, at least, so it seemed.

Pinned in its own territory, Hampton prepared to punt. Enter Brock Borgo, Hampton’s star running back, and, relevantly, its punter. Borgo took advantage of an unsuspecting Highlands return team, faking a punt and racing 67 yards for a score.

Hampton coach Steve Sciullo said the fake punt was Borgo’s call.

“That was a call by the punter. I didn’t even see the play, to be blunt with you,” Sciullo said. “I saw him running past me, and I was like, ‘Oh, what the hell happened?’ and he scored. Great call.”

Highlands marched the length of the field on its next drive only to lose a fumble in the red zone.

A punt from Borgo minutes later gave Highlands the ball again but pinned the Golden Rams inside their own 5-yard line. It was the first of several outstanding punts from Borgo on the night.

On the first play of the drive, Talbot pressure got to Randolph, forcing the quarterback into an intentional grounding penalty in his own end zone.

The safety and ensuing Hampton drive — which resulted in a 3-yard Borgo run — seized momentum in the Talbots’ favor for the time being.

Randolph scrambled for a 28-yard score before halftime, bringing the Golden Rams back within a score.

Their next two plays from scrimmage — a 75-yard Luke Bombalski run, then a 93-yard Darius Cherry run — went for scores, too, giving Highlands touchdowns on three consecutive offensive plays.

Not to be denied, Borgo would answer with his third rushing score of the night with 6 minutes, 12 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

A Luke Fiscus field goal from 23 yards brought Hampton to within two points, but it was all Highlands from that point.

Bombalski’s second rushing touchdown of the night gave Highlands a two-score cushion. His third score, which came in the game’s waning moments, propelled his team into the postseason.

Tags: Hampton, Highlands