dangell@journalnet.com

Jace Hansen's known as one of the Highland football team's best receivers. He's one of quarterback Tanner Nielson's favorite targets, and he and fellow receiver Joe Rasmussen can usually be counted on to make important catches to keep drives alive for the Rams.

His touchdown catch against Pocatello, however, was on a completely different level.

Hansen managed to pull in a slight overthrow from Nielson, then somehow landed inbounds for the score, giving the Rams (6-1) a lead they would never surrender in a 24-12 victory over Pocatello (2-5) on Friday in the Black and Blue Bowl.

"I'm not exactly sure (how I caught it)," Hansen said. "I saw it floating in the back of the end zone, and I told myself I had to catch it. I just got lucky, I guess. I don't know."

Nielson's gotten used to good catches from his receivers. But he admitted that he'd never seen anything like that from Hansen before.

"I wasn't sure if they were going to give it to him," he said. "I threw it a little high, and he made a good play on it."

That play symbolized the entire night for Pocatello. No matter what the Indians tried or how well they defended, they couldn't find a way to stop the Rams' potent passing attack.

"It's always difficult to stop," Pocatello coach Tom Harrison said. "They block well and they have good receivers. Those receivers came up with some nice catches. That's what they do. They came up with some big plays when they needed to."

The other part of that was Nielson, who threw for three touchdowns total. The junior made one early mistake that Tyson Hoffman intercepted, but otherwise, he turned in a performance that left Highland coach Gino Mariani very pleased.

"Hands down, his best game of the year," Mariani said. "He was throwing the ball well. He made great decisions and ran the ball when he had to. He really grew up tonight and had his best performance tonight on the big stage."

In fact, there was little about the night that Mariani wasn't happy about. Other than a few penalties that made things harder than necessary, he thought the Rams played well in every area.

"The O-line had their best game too," he said. "I'll take that effort every game, and hopefully in two weeks we'll see the same thing. We're starting to click and do some good things."

While Harrison didn't have the victory to savor, he also left fairly satisfied with the performance his team had given him.

"I congratulate Highland, they made the plays when they needed to," he said. "Our goal was to play well, and I thought we played well at times, both on offense and defense. The kids played hard and gave it everything they've got. That was our goal, to come out of this and play well. I'm really proud of our kids, they played really hard."

Now, they'll have to learn how to play without one of their better weapons.

Running back Jake Valentine left the game in the third quarter with a collarbone injury, and Harrison said that he is likely out for the rest of the season.

Against Highland, the Indians had a difficult time adjusting without one of their better running backs in the backfield.

"When we lost Jake Valentine in the third quarter, it was hard to run the same plays," he said. "The guys that came in, they're not Jake Valentine. We're going to miss him against Century. We'll have to try to find someone who can step in for him."

Pocatello will have two weeks before playing Century to find that replacement. Highland also plans to use its upcoming bye to get healthy before it returns to its district schedule against Idaho Falls. They'll come into that matchup riding a six-game winning streak now.

But just as important was the winning streak against Pocatello, which has now reached four straight. Nielson was particularly happy about extending that streak.

"That's an amazing one," he said. "That's the best one of the year so far. We played JV last year and lost, so this was a revenge game for me, kind of."