[Thunder 44]

It was humble pie night at David Cecil Memorial Stadium. The Birds have finally come back to earth.

I'm not sure I see your point. The Birds won by a 3 touchdown margin, and that is coming down to earth?

Boyle played a great first half, but as I reminded a few fans around me, Highlands is very good at making halftime adjustments, which they clearly did. Secondly, if you are going to win at Highlands, you aren't going to win a half and call it a night, but you are going to have to win all 4 quarters. In addition to playing both ways, several of the Boyle players also played special teams, and once they lost the lead, you could see the physical toll on some.

As for the defensive struggles in the first half, this type of running game always gives us fits. We don't see it a lot around here, which makes it tough to get good defending. Offense didn't look bad in the first half, but with Boyle scoring on every possession, we dug a hole we had to climb out of. The D in the first half didn't look aggressive, but that changed in the second half. A few big stops and turnovers really got them fired up, and you could see the change.

All in all, it was a good test for Highlands. Plenty of good things to build on on both sides of the ball. On to Scott County!