K’Vonte Baker and timely defense helps Heights prevail in opener against Maize South

Heights and Maize South.

Two teams with notably good offenses. But in this matchup, defense was the ultimate decision-maker.

Heights’ defense triumphed, allowing the Falcons to pull out a 35-21 win in their season opener.

“I think we did a great job defensively, everyone expected us as the underdog to lose,” said Jamir Johnson, Heights’ senior linebacker. “Our defense stood strong when it needed to.”

From the get-go, it appeared to be anyone’s game, but Heights scored first and held the lead.

The Mavericks didn’t see a chance to take their first lead of the game until late into the third quarter. Even with being 1 mere yard away from scoring, Heights prevented a Maize South touchdown.

That helped Heights score a touchdown the following series and set the tone going into the fourth quarter.

In the middle of the fourth, a sense of deja-vu fell upon the game. Maize South was yet again within a few yards of evening out the score, but Heights’ defense had a crucial stop.

That is the moment the entire game shifted.

The Falcons’ sturdy, persistent defense was the factor that allowed their offense to go off. Johnson believes that the unity between the team’s offense and defense is what allowed that to happen.

“Offense or defense, we’re all brothers. What we pump each other up, we hype each other up, when we make a mistake we don’t turn on each other,” Johnson said. “We keep the competitive edge that we have and just push each other to be better.”

In the series following its crucial stop, Heights found itself pushed back on their 1-yard-line. That’s where senior quarterback K’Vonte Baker found the one open spot he needed to take flight.

Baker ran the ball in for a 99-yard touchdown.

“That run was just crazy,” Baker said. “Once I hit that outside I was just like ‘I’m going, I’m pretty much gone.’”

A couple series later, Baker had an 80-yard touchdown run. He had nearly 200 running yards in the fourth quarter alone.

“(Baker) is a very special player,” Heights head coach Dominick Dingle said. “He just is one of those players that does a good job of making something out of nothing.

Baker was not surprised that The Falcons would conquer the fourth quarter because that is what he believes is the team’s specialty.

“We’re a fourth-quarter team, we turn up every time in the fourth quarter,” Baker said. “We just need to start earlier next time.”

Dingle, who is in his first season with Heights, agrees his team still has things to work on, but is proud of the growth he has already seen in his team.

“We’re trying to grow up in a hurry. We played a lot of sophomores on the defensive side of the ball that got their first varsity action, very proud of those guys very proud of our seniors,” Dingle said.

“We have a lot of pieces that we’re continuing to make sure that we are moving in the right direction and moving forward as a team.”

This story was originally published August 31, 2018 at 11:32 PM.