The Chillicothe Hornets welcomed in the St. Pius Warriors on the gridiron Friday night. St. Pius entered the game with a pair of bad tastes left in their mouth, fresh off their first defeat of the season to Maryville last Friday night 46-42, coupled with the fact that the Chillicothe Hornets stunned the Warriors on their home field in the meeting between these two teams last season 29-20, that gave St. Pius extra motivation to get off to a strong start.
The Warriors scored less than three minutes into the game on an 87 yard touchdown run from Jacob Manis. Chillicothe showed their fight, responding with a long drive that consumed over half the first quarter featuring a one-handed catch from Sol’jier Allen on a 3rd and 11 pass from Cayden Larson that went for a 33 yard gain, and was capped off by a 10 yard touchdown run from the quarterback Larson.
The first quarter ended 7-7 but the Warriors ambushed Chillicothe early in the 2nd quarter with three quick scores. As the Hornets were driving, down 28-7 late in the half, the team got the ball back in the hands of Sol’jier Allen who took a 47 yard end-around handoff to the house for six points. St. Pius would add a field goal in the waning seconds of the half to take a 31-13 lead to the locker room.
In the 2nd half Chillicothe twice moved the ball into position to come up with points but St. Pius held strong with solid defense to prevent any more scoring from Chillicothe’s offense. On the other side, Warriors quarterback Hudson Bailey featured his arm, throwing three touchdown passes in the 2nd half to go along with two first half TD passes, making it consecutive games for the sophomore signal caller to throw for 5 touchdowns. Silas Midgyett led the Chillicothe offense in yardage with 125 yards on the ground.
The Hornets fall to 2-3 on the season, 1-2 in the MEC. St. Pius is now 4-1 and 2-1 in conference. Chillicothe is back at home next Friday hosting Lafayette on Homecoming night.
