Highland (5-5, 2-1) running back Dane Nauman hit the century mark again with a rushing touchdown to lead the Fighting Scots, but it wasn’t enough as Ontario (9-1, 6-1) came away with a 34-20 in the final game of the regular season on Friday night.
Ontario went up 7-0 at the beginning of the first quarter on a two yard-rushing touchdown by Chase Studler, with Trey Booker knocking it through the uprights. With four minutes to go in the first quarter, Kolton Stover made it 7-6 on a three-yard rushing touchdown.
Booker hit a 30-yard field goal in the second quarter with 11 minutes left making it 10-6, but Highland took a 13-10 lead when Nauman ran it in from 19-yards out with Malin Fichtner hitting the extra point. Bodpegn Miller threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Landon Foltz to give Ontario a 17-13 lead, which was the score at halftime.
In the third quarter Ontario went up 24-13 on a Miller two-yard run followed by a Booker extra point. He ran the ball in from 20-yards out and Booker was good on the extra point again to make it 31-13 with five minutes left. With three minutes to go in the quarter, Stover hit Kadyn Reichenbach for a huge 68-yard score and a Fichtner kick made it 31-20.
Booker drilled a 46-yard field goal to put Ontario up 34-20 in the fourth quarter and the Warriors held on for the win.
Nauman tallied 102 yards on 18 carries, and a touchdown to lead Highland. On the season, the senior running back has now has 1,549 yards on 186 carries with eight touchdowns. He is averaging 8.3 yards per carry this year.
Reichenbach led the receivers with three catches for 119 yards and a score. Zach Church had three catches for 36 yards, Cooper Young hauled in two catches for 17 yards and Nauman had a six-yard catch.
Church picked off a pass and had three tackles, while Nauman had six tackles leading the defense. Clayton VanDuke and Clai Mitchell had a half-sack each. Young had team high eight tackles in the loss.
