Hesston pulls first-round upset with 42-28 win over Collegiate

The Hesston Swathers are no strangers to the underdog role in football.

Instead of letting it intimidate them, the Swathers have embraced the role head on.

With three key players getting injured at the beginning of the season, Hesston’s head coach Tyson Bauerle believes that put the underdog label on the Swathers immediately.

“The adversity that we faced this year, we had a lot of injuries at the beginning, we’ve been underdogs since the beginning, that’s just how we felt,” Bauerle said. “It’s nothing new.”

Hesston knocked off Collegiate 42-28 on Friday night at Collegiate in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs.

Not being favored was nothing new to the Swathers, and they used that as motivation.

“We love that, the past three years we’ve been the underdogs,” senior quarterback Cameron Cox said. “We like that role, and we play better in it; we just like that challenge.”

Hesston fumbled the ball during the opening kick. Collegiate recovered, and scored on the corresponding drive.

But the Swathers wasted no time to answer with a touchdown of their own — along with a two-point conversion.

Hesston did not let that lead go the rest of the game.

“Our guys showed a lot of resilience and bounced back every time they had a big play,” Bauerle said. “Credit to Collegiate, we know they’re a good school.”

Hesston and Collegiate have quite a history. As 3A rivals, the game was expected to be neck-and-neck, but the Spartans couldn’t dig out of their 14-point half-time deficit.

The Swathers’ explosive offense became nearly unstoppable with a touchdown nearly every drive. Hesston’s offensive line was the key.

“I think it’s the best game the O-line has had all season,” Cox said. “They were playing physical, there was holes, and we just kept running through them.”

Despite the underdog mentality, the potential season-ending loss loomed over the Swathers. But instead of letting that daunting reality of the playoffs get to them, they turned it into motivation.

“We all stepped up, we knew it was a big game, so we just went out there and played our hearts out,” senior wide receiver Grady Toews said. “We played it like it was our last, so we came out and we did our job.”

Hesston moves on to play undefeated Smoky Valley on the road for the second round of the playoffs.

In yet another underdog situation, Bauerle said that they’re going to ride that status as much as possible.

“We’re going to be underdogs again, and that’s okay,” Bauerle said. “We’re going to keep rolling with that underdog feel, our guys embraced it.”

This story was originally published October 26, 2018 at 11:15 PM with the headline "Hesston pulls first-round upset with 42-28 win over Collegiate."