It was a chilly night in Raleigh and with the rain coming, teams geared up for Thursday night football. One game in the Raleigh area lived up to the hype, as Hillside traveled to Cardinals Gibbons with both teams undefeated in conference play and Gibbons coming in with a 6-0 record, while Hillside was 5-1.
In the start of the game, it was the Hillside defense that was winning the battle, pushing Gibbons back on drives. Several times Gibbons found themselves in second or third and long, playing into the hands of Hillside.
Hillside went up early with quarterback Randy Trice finding Caleb Harrington for a 28 yard touchdown, while running back Jamal Elliott scored a few plays later as well to put the Hornets up 14-0 in the second quarter.
Cardinals Gibbons fought back and got on the board with a 25 yard field goal late in the second quarter and eventually scored a few plays later on a muffed punt by Hillside, cutting the lead to 14-10 at halftime.
Elliott found the end zone again to start the third quarter. But with both offenses somewhat struggling at times in the first half, that would change in the second half.
Cardinal Gibbons would find the end zone two more times after, taking their first lead after quarterback Stoneking found Biestek on a 17 yard pass.
Hillside would answer back with Elliott's third touchdown, while adding another one in the fourth quarter, pushing the lead to 34-22.
Gibbons wouldn't give up though, as the Hornets tried to use clock in the fourth quarter, but the Crusaders offense started clicking again. Gibbons eventually scored with 1:23 to go in the game, cutting the Hornets lead to 34-29 and looking for the onside kick.
The Crusaders recovered and drove down the field, scoring one yard out and taking the 35-34 lead with 14.5 second left to go. The momentum was there and Cardinal Gibbons was just seconds away from going to 7-0 on the season.
That is when running back Elliott showed up one last time, scoring his fourth and the go-ahead touchdown, returning the kickoff 99 yards to give Hillside the 41-35 victory Thursday night in Raleigh.
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