Iron Horse Stadium was on its feet. Fourth-and-14 at the 45-yard line, the game on the line against the Eagle Mustangs.
Senior quarterback Jacob Vincent dropped back, looked for an option and released the ball. The crowd went silent as it hung in the air, the weight of two teams hanging with it. As the ball neared a Ram receiver, a Mustangs defender knocked him down, the pass fell to the ground and the crowd rang out in boos.
The Rams fell to the Eagle Mustangs 33-28 to drop to 0-1.
Despite the loss, head coach Nick Sorrell was proud of his team's effort.
"I know that these guys, they don't have a quit in them," he said. "I've seen it throughout the offseason, I've seen it throughout the summer, how they've worked out. I am really, really proud of how hard they played. As a coach, I can't ask for anything more than what they just showed today."
Highland running back Cedric Mitchell scored his third touchdown of the game with under two minutes left to cut the lead to five. The team never quit until there was no time left.
"We can take it all from it. I mean, all it comes down to is the little things, right? That's where we get exposed from good teams like this," Mitchell said.
Vincent had a touchdown of his own — a dazzling 27-yard run on fourth-and-9 to keep the Rams in the game. They played a tougher team, and they learned from it.
"We gotta watch the film, lick our wounds tonight, come back tomorrow, get rested, get healthy, learn from it," Vincent said. "Then we're ready to go into the next eight games of the year. And we're gonna go shock some people."
In a matchup between two top-five teams, one had to fall. Tonight it was the Rams — but one loss does not define Highland football.
"We got to learn from those mistakes so that we don't make those again. We've got to make sure that we don't let one game define our season," Sorrell said. "Keep our heads up, keep grinding away, because our schedule is tough — and that's why we did it this way, so that when we get to our conference, we can grind things out."
That tough schedule continues when the Rams welcome Box Elder (Utah) in the Rocky Mountain Rumble on Friday, Aug. 28, at 8:15 p.m. in the ICCU Dome.