High school football rivalry: Fort Worth Eastern Hills defeats Western Hills

Rivals Fort Worth Eastern Hills Highlanders and Fort Worth Western Hills Cougars went head-to-head Friday Night at Scarborough-Handley Field. Eastern Hills took home the 34-28 win to start district play.

Friday’s game was another good one. Beginning the back-and-forth battle, Western Hills’ Rodney Hill scored the first touchdown of the night after recording 30 rushing yards for a first down. Hill then received a pass from Tyler Johnston for a touchdown just 9:59 into the first quarter.

The Cougars scored again with 8:01 in the first with a handoff from Johnston to Warren Carter. But the Highlanders didn’t let the Cougars get them too worried early on.

“We just had to stay patient, we are really athletic, we are really fast, so I knew we were going to end up getting the plays we were missing in the first quarter,” Eastern Hills head coach Devvin Anderson said. “We just stayed patient.”

They didn’t have to stay patient for too long; a minute after Western Hills scored its second touchdown of the night, the Highlanders clapped back with a touchdown of their own from Prince Hill. Eastern Hills went for the two-point conversion but fell short. Western Hills led 14-6 at the end of the first quarter.

Moving into the second quarter, Eastern Hills had something to prove, especially Prince Hill. He came out scoring his second touchdown with 9:40 remaining in the second quarter, making the score 14-12. He narrowed the lead by Western Hills.

“We kept giving Prince Hill the ball, kept giving Chris Johnson the ball. We knew some good things would happen,” Anderson said.

And good things did happen for the Highlanders. Hill scored his third touchdown of the night, with 78 rushing yards, which put Eastern Hills in the lead. The score was 18-14 with 4:20 on the clock in the first half.

“So today it was our homecoming. I knew a whole bunch of people was going to pop,” Hill said. “We got the win with help from my brother Chris, and my D-Line.”

Eastern Hills relied heavily on Hill and Johnson for their win in the Battle of the Hills. Johnson scored his own touchdown for the team, which brought the score to 26-14 with 4:02 left in the half.

Coming into the second half, Rodney Hill ran the ball for 45 yards, which set Tyler Johnston up to bring the Cougars within one touchdown of the Highlanders. The Highlanders led 26-21.

Johnson scored two more touchdowns for Eastern Hills, and the final scoring play of the night was a touchdown made by Western Hills’ Keeper Rodney Hill.

Both teams will face the Eagles next week. The Eastern Hills Highlanders will play against the Decatur Eagles on Friday, Oct. 3, at Handley Field, and the Western Hills Cougars will play the Diamond Hill-Jarvis Eagles on Friday, Oct. 3, at Farrington Field.

Editor’s note: This story was produced by members of FW Southwest High School’s advanced media program.