By Jeremy Short

Phoenix Correspondent

WAGONER — Wagoner took advantage of several Hilldale miscues to cruise to a 44-14 victory at home in the regular season finale Friday night.

The Hornets were haunted by six turnovers (three fumbles and three interceptions) which led to 37 of Wagoner’s 44 points.

“It’s kind of been the story a lot,” Hilldale coach Don Hendrix said of his team’s turnover problems. “We gave them short fields and had punt snaps go over our heads. It was crazy.”

On the other side of the ball, the Bulldogs played turnover-free football, which is something Wagoner head coach Dale Condict has been trying to get his team to do all season.

“We’ve really preached our turnover margin all year,” said Condict. “It was something we really wanted to accomplish, to finish the season in the positive.”

The Bulldogs jumped in front early with 17 first-quarter points. Tristan Peterson set Wagoner up for two of those scores with a pair of interceptions in Hilldale territory.

Wagoner (6-4, 5-2 District 4A-4) added 13 more points in the second quarter before the Hornets finally got on the board with 12 seconds left in the half when Morgan Nicodin scored a 1-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to 30-8 after Hilldale converted the two-point conversion.

Wagoner padded the lead in the third quarter with a 1-yard touchdown run from McJunkins and a 5-yard touchdown run from Reynolds, his second of the game.

Pantle led Hilldale (1-9, 1-6) with a game-high 99 yards rushing on 13 carries.

“Here we are in week 10 and we are still beating ourselves,” said Hendrix. “The disappointing thing is that we seem to not want to compete and do anything correctly.”

Wagoner now prepares to travel to Collinsville next week for the opening round of the playoffs.