Highland adds to Idaho football dominance with state-record 12th championship
POCATELLO, Idaho - Drew Hymas’ first two playoff games were less than desirable.
But when it mattered the most, the Highland senior quarterback came to play.
He racked up 426 of the team’s 498 yards of total offense and accounted for all but one touchdown in the 35-28 win over Coeur d’Alene in the Class 5A state championship game Saturday at Holt Arena.
Hymas threw for 286 yards and a pair of touchdowns, while adding another 140 and two more scores on the ground. The performance gave the Rams their 12th title - the most in Idaho history - and the first since 2017.
“He’s the one guy who’s going to give you everything he has,” Highland coach Nick Sorrell said. “He’s the ultimate team leader. He’s QB one for a reason. And he stepped on a big stage and showed everyone what he could do.”
Hymas, who was second-team all-state last season, threw for just 81 combined yards in wins over Owyhee and Meridian. He had just come back from a strained oblique on the left side of his abdomen. It happened while just warming up in practice before the Madison game on Oct. 13.
“It was kinda a freak accident,” Hymas said.
Hymas toughed that game out, but sat in the regular season finale against Thunder Ridge the following week.
He returned for the quarterfinal matchup against Owyhee on Nov. 3. But Hymas only passed for 70 yards in the 28-10 win. It got even worse the following week with just 11 yards in a 20-14 win over Meridian.
“It sucks,” Hymas said. “Injuries are always hard to deal with. If it would have happened earlier in the year, it would have been fine. But it happened right when we were getting into our bigger games.
“I just had to be tough and fight through it.”
Hymas then reinjured it last week.
But no one could tell, especially late in the fourth quarter.
With the game tied at 28-28, Hymas rolled out to his right, cut inside and raced past the rest of the Coeur d’Alene defense, which came into the game as the state’s best (10.3 points per game). His 47-yard run gave Highland the lead with four minutes and 28 seconds remaining.
“I was just taking a bunch of chances because it was like, ‘F it, this is my last game of high school,’” Hymas said. “I just wanted to do whatever I could to help us win.”
It ended up being enough - although Hymas had to nervously wait towards the end.
A late Jackson Riddle fumble gave Coeur d'Alene one last shot to force overtime. The recovery gave the Vikings the ball 1st-and-10 at their own 18-yard line with 2:13 to go.
But Zerek Younis saved the day and made his quarterback's sacrifice worth it by picking off Coeur d'Alene's Caden Symons with just 1:45 left on the clock.
Hymas then converted a 3rd-and-9 with a 10-yard run before kneeling it out.
“Right when we took the last knee, I just burst into tears,” Hymas said.
He certainly earned it.
Especially in the third quarter.
The Rams faced a 4th-and-6 at the Coeur d’Alene 35-yard line down 21-14. But Hymas stepped back and dropped an absolute dime to Kai Callen for a sudden first-and-goal. One play later, he scored on a 3-yard bootleg run to tie the game at 21 apiece.
Hymas also calmed Highland down when it trailed 7-0 after the Vikings scored on their first play of the game. He knotted it up at 7-7 later in the first quarter on an 18-yard strike to Riddle. Hymas then gave the Rams their first lead of the game with a 53-yard bomb to Rhidge Barela midway through the second quarter.
“I love Drew. I couldn’t ask for someone better to play with,” said Riddle who recorded 120 yards and two touchdowns of total offense. “We knew in this game that they were going to kind of key on me. And with that, it opened everything up for him. I’m so proud of him. That’s a strong kid. He persevered for this team.”
The game, which was a rematch of the 2017 final, featured five lead changes, four ties and more than a 1,000 yards of total offense between the storied programs, who now have 17 titles between them.
Coeur d’Alene tallied 510 yards of total offense. It was led by Symons, who threw for 330 yards. Running back Owen Harris pulled off the hat trick on the ground to go with 60 yards.
Kai Wheeler had 137 yards receiving. Most of that came on an 84-yard touchdown catch from Kolbe Coey on a double-pass during the Vikings' first play from scrimmage. It gave them a 7-0 advantage just two minutes into the game.
Joseph Hagel added 100 yards receiving for Coeur d'Alene, which was playing in its first state final since 2019. The Vikings were seeking their first championship in a decade.
