The last time the Highland football team was on the field, the Huskies suffered a road loss to the Liberty Redhawks.

They got a taste of revenge on Saturday afternoon on their home field, as Joshua Bishop caught three touchdown passes and returned a punt for a touchdown in the Huskies’ 41-6 win over the Redhawks at Highland High School.

“This feels pretty good,” Bishop said. “We worked hard in the offseason. Good conditioning. We went though it all together and this feels good.”

Bishop showed his versatility by – in addition to his four touchdowns – he also converted five of the Huskies’ six extra point attempts while also handling the kickoff and punting duties.

“Bishop had a very nice game,” Highland coach Tom Schlappich said. “I think our offensive line did a fantastic job. Our running backs and quarterback had a nice game. The defense, you can’t say enough about them.”

While the offense was churning, the defense kept the Redhawks’ offense quiet. They did allow Liberty quarterback Gavin Beseth to connect with Jameel McCline for a 23-yard touchdown in the second quarter.

On their previous possession, the Redhawks had marched to the Highland 2-yard line, after a 66-yard halfback pass from Enrique Mercado to Aydan Wilson, but the defense forced a fumble, turning the ball back over to the offense.

Mercado was the centerpiece of the Liberty offense, but the Huskies bottled him up.

“Coach (Kevin) Rizzo has been doing a fantastic job scheming with the defense,” Schlappich said. “We spend a lot of time with schematics. It’s the same defense we had last year, and now he’s able to do things with them. Now that they understand it, he’s really going to take it to the next level.”

The outcome was never in doubt as the Huskies led by at least two scores most of the way. By the time the Redhawks got on the scoreboard, the Huskies had already scored two touchdowns.

Their first score came on their second possession, which was heavily dominated by running back James Gescheidle, who had four carries for 46 yards on the drive, including a 34-yard touchdown run that gave the Huskies a 7-0 lead.

“He’s really a workhorse,” Schlappich said. “I don’t know how many carries he had, but I kept looking at him and said, ‘are you OK?’”

Quarterback Connor Gemmell and Bishop carried the load the rest of the way, and two screen passes went for touchdowns of 9 and 26 yard respectively to give the Huskies a 21-6 halftime lead.

“We work on that a lot,” Bishop said. “It’s one of our favorite things. We were talking beforehand that we think it would work, and I think it worked pretty well.”

They also showed they could go the distance, as Gemmell hit Bishop with a 38-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter.

Gemmell threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Marco Garrity, and Bishop returned a punt about 45 yards for the Huskies’ final touchdown.

“I wasn’t even supposed to go out there for punt return, but it was a last second thing, and I went out there and did my best.”

The Huskies’ Week 1 victory mirrors the start to the 2022 season when the Huskies beat the Saugerties Sawyers, 34-7, in their season opener. However, four lopsided losses followed until they posted a Week 5 win over the Rondout Valley Ganders.

Then another five straight losses followed that.

However, this year’s version of the Huskies feels different.

“I definitely do think we feel better than last year,” Bishop said. “Last year, the mood wasn’t as upbeat, and I think we have a lot more potential this year. We’re only reaching the tip of the iceberg. I think there’s so much more to come out of it."