Hilltoppers Fall to Blue Devils

On Friday September 22, the Hilltoppers hosted the Poly Prep Blue Devils for their second official game of the 2023 season and first home contest of the year.  Under beautiful weather conditions and leading into Hopkins annual Back-to-School-Bash, the Hilltoppers were bested by the Blue Devils 42-14.

Hopkins struggled to gain traction early on, surrendering touchdowns to Poly on 4 of their opening 5 possessions to dig themselves into a 28-0 hole.  Facing a 4 score deficit mid-way through the second quarter, the Hilltoppers offense got to work and put together a productive drive which was capped off by a 30 yard touchdown pass from Rocco DeMaio ‘26 to Senior Captain Andy Toft ‘24.  The Eli Ratner ‘24 extra point set the score at 28-7 heading into halftime.  Starting off the second half, Poly controlled the clock for much of the 3rd quarter on their way down the field for a rushing score to make it 35-7 just before the start of the 4th.  Hopkins offense would respond one more time, this time on a 21 yard Demaio to Will Hensel ‘24 passing connection to set the score at 35-14.  Unfortunately for the Hilltoppers, the Blue Devils would capitalize on their next possession to set the score at 42-14 where it would remain until the end of the game.

This game was a slow start for the Hilltoppers, who gradually felt more comfortable as play went on but were unable to close the gap from the early points surrendered.  They will look to build on the last 3 quarters of the game as they head down to Morristown, NJ this weekend to face the Morristown Beard Crimson.  This is the furthest road contest the Hilltoppers travel to this year, and we hope to see many of our family and friends in attendance.