It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done.

The Highland Huskies scored their lone touchdown in the second quarter, and the defense made it stand up in a 7-6 win over the Wallkill Panthers on Friday at Wallkill Senior High School’s Robinson Field.

“It was definitely not easy, but we got it done,” Highland senior Luke Wiese said. “We played to the final whistle and fought hard.”

Not only did the Huskies play to the final whistle, but the Panthers took them there. The Huskies led 7-0 for more than half a game before the Panthers got on the board in the fourth quarter after a personal foul against the Huskies set the Panthers up with a first down on the Highland 18-yard line.

Four plays later, Wallkill quarterback Alex Mikesh hit R.J. Meyer on a 23-yard touchdown pass on fourth down to pull the Panthers to within a point with 6:10 remaining in the game. After the Panthers were whistled for a penalty on the kick, a bad snap preserved the Huskies’ lead.

“That was a gamechanger,” Wiese said. “It pretty much sealed the game for us. We just had to run the clock out after that.”

The Huskies had a chance to put the game away as the Panthers had already burned their three timeouts, but were stopped on a fourth down, setting the Panthers up at their own 24-yard line.

The Panthers got to the Highland 40-yard line, but a sack by the Huskies pushed the Panthers back, and the ensuing Hail Mary pass fell incomplete.

“They could have easily folded, but we played stout defense,” Highland coach Tom Schlappich said. “The defense played pretty well throughout, except for a couple of deep shots. For the most part, I’m very happy.
There was less to be happy about in the first quarter, although that was when the Huskies scored their only points. They lost two fumbles and had two touchdowns called back by penalties.

“It was typical first game type of stuff,” Schlappich said. “We had a tremendous amount of mistakes on offense. We put the ball on the ground. We had quite a few issues with the exchange from the center to quarterback. We kept them in in the game in the first half.”

However, it was the fumble they didn’t lose that set up their only touchdown. The Panthers failed to recover a muffed punt, setting the Huskies up at midfield. After a three-yard loss on a run, Highland quarterback Maison Bragg connected with Jayden Vasquez for a 52-yard pass to the 1-yard line.

“They were in a Cover 0,” Schlappich said. “They were pushing everybody, and we just called it. He hit the receiver on a slant down the middle and he was wide open.”

A play later, A.J. Nugent ran the ball in for a one-yard touchdown and the extra point by Sophie Valentino gave the Huskies a 7-0 lead with 2:35 left in the second quarter.
There was some good, but a lot to clean up heading into Thursday’s game at Poughkeepsie.

“We need to just learn from our mistakes, clean up things in practice and get better for next week,” Wiese said.