Savage Heat headed to the semis

The football season just keeps getting sweeter for the Hot Springs Savage Heat. The team is headed to Box Elder this weekend for the 6-player semifinal round after beating Highwood last weekend in Hot Springs 46-8.

Senior quarterback Nick McAllister is excited that the Savage Heat get to continue their season. "This team is a really close knit family. It's like a group of brothers," he explained. "This has been one of the funnest years."

As last Saturday's contest in Hot Springs kicked off, it appeared it would be a fight to the end for the two teams. With each weekend possibly being the last game of their high school careers for each school's seniors, the teams hit the field ready to stop the competition.

Highwood's record was 7-3 going into Saturday's quarterfinal game, and the Savage Heat were 8-3. The teams were well matched as the defenses stopped each other on several drives. "It was definitely a defensive battle," said Hot Springs Coach Jim Lawson.

Highwood would receive the ball first, and immediately the Savage Heat almost recovered a fumble. On fourth down, Weston Slonaker clobbered the Mountaineer quarterback as Hot Springs took over on downs.

With the ball in the home team's hands, it only took a few plays for the Savage Heat to score as quarterback Nick McAllister connected with Ben Aldridge for a touchdown. On the PAT attempt, Aldridge picked up a failed snap and passed to McAllister, who ran in for the extra point.

Highwood wasn't giving up and on their next possession, scored and had a successful kick to take an 8-7 lead over Hot Springs. Highwood put increased pressure on the Savage Heat's passing game as the home team struggled to get the ball down the field. The score stayed 8-7 in Highwood's favor for the entire first half as penalties plagued both teams.

Highwood recovered a Hot Springs fumble late in the half and the Savage Heat defense excelled at pressuring the Mountaineers, knocking down passes and forcing turnovers. It appeared the game would continue a battle of the defenses as the teams went into the locker rooms.

"We made some little adjustments and looked at what was going to work against them," Coach Lawson said. 'The boys really responded well after halftime the last two games and had two big second halves. Two weeks in a row they regrouped and got it done."

The second half of Saturday's playoff game was a completely different story. The Savage Heat came out with a renewed determination and fire. On their first possession of the third quarter, McAllister connected on a huge pass to Aldridge to advance the ball before Weston Slonaker ran in for his first touchdown of the game. Pedro Vidotti's kick was good and the Savage Heat began their rally.

"Our running game got established right away in that third quarter and that really ended up being big," Lawson noted. "Daniel and Weston had big games and ran the ball really well." The coach added that sophomores Daniel Slonaker and Ben Aldridge have improved much in the season. "They have gotten better and better as the season went on. We knew they had that capacity." He said it was a stressful week at practice with the various injuries, and the whole team knew they needed to step up.

On the next Highwood possession, Hot Springs again took control, Weston Slonaker recovered a fumble and his brother Daniel caught a pass from Aldridge to score for Savage Heat.

Hot Springs kept the pressure and forced Highwood to punt on their next possession, capitalizing on the turnover as Weston Slonaker ran in for yet another touchdown and the Savage Heat widened their lead to 30-8. As the third quarter wound down, Highwood was able to slowly make their way down the field, and McAllister knocked another Highwood pass to force a turnover on downs.

As the fourth quarter started and Hot Springs still had a commanding 30-8 lead, the Savage Heat proved they weren't letting up and Weston Slonaker caught another pass from McAllister. With Vidotti's successful PAT kick, the Savage Heat were up 38-8.

Aldridge continued to excel on both sides of the ball, as did Weston Slonaker, as the Hot Springs defense again took the ball over on the 29 yard line. McAllister ran for a big first down, then passed to Aldirdge for the final score of the game. Vidotti added two points with just four minutes left in the game as the Savage Heat were up 46-8.

As a final message to the visiting Mountaineers, Aldridge intercepted a Highwood pass on their last possession and the Savage Heat took advantage of the running clock to seal the win.

"It was a pretty tough game. Highwood is a really good football team," said McAllister, one of six Savage Heat seniors. He noted that the team was without classmate David Chapman, who was injured last week. "We have had a lot of injuries and have had to rotate a lot of guys in. With all the injuries, everybody stepped up." He also noted that senior John Waterbury has been battling an ankle injury, but was tough on defense and helped the team on the line. Waterbury had 15 tackles on defense against Highwood.

"We're pretty focused on the next step. The team really wanted to be in the state championship this year and we felt like it was a realistic goal but things had to come together for us. We lost some close games early in the season, but it's different in the playoffs. They are more focused and have had to learn how to win with some of our main players out," Lawson expressed. "You never know how a team is going to respond, but we've been able to respond and rebound off that."

Like McAllister, Lawson commented on the closeness of the team. "They do everything together. They enjoy each other and they are all friends. It's a good bunch of young men."

Hot Springs now has one more hurdle before the state championship game as they travel the more than 300 miles to Box Elder this weekend. The Savage Heat football team hasn't played a semifinal 6-player football game since 2016, the year they won the state championship. The Bears beat Denton-Geyser-Stanford-Geraldine 74-64 in their quarterfinal bout and are the only undefeated 6-player team left in the state.. Box Elder is 9-0 for the season and will have the home field advantage, but Hot Springs is ready for the challenge.

"It's been awhile since we've been to a semifinal game. It's a big deal getting over that hump. We've been close a number of times," Lawson said.

Kickoff is at 1 p.m. Saturday and the game will be broadcast on the NFHS network.