HILLSBORO  – Ian Miller got hurt the night before Bishop Brady’s first game of the season, and head coach Robert Clauss and his players were chomping at the bit for Miller to come back. Miller quickly demonstrated why.

The junior running back scored a pair of touchdowns on the ground and also caught a touchdown pass from junior quarterback Joey Richardson who threw three TD passes and ran in three himself.

The Giants scored eight touchdowns on 11 possessions, and Miller or Richardson was involved in all of them, as Bishop Brady (2-2) made a statement with a 56-46 victory Hillsboro-Deering (2-2) on Saturday, the first homecoming football game on the HDHS campus in school history.

The Hillcats scored on six of their 11 drives, but went 3-and-out on the first possession of the game. Miller got in on the action quickly, catching a pass from Richardson and scoring from about 35 yards out to give the Giants an early lead.

“We finally got a chance to get Ian back in the ball game,” Clauss said. “ It makes all the difference because teams can’t key Joey. That’s what we ran into after Week 1, when everybody saw what he could do and we didn’t have another weapon yet. (Having Ian) gives us a two-headed monster and we can balance the ball.”

The Giants spread the ball and were able to regularly move the chains, but so were the Hillcats. Thanks to a strong running game from juniors Robert King (253 yards and four touchdowns on 18 carries, plus two 2-point conversions) and Dan Richard (186 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries, three 2-point conversions), H-D led 24-21 at halftime.

Richard scored both of his touchdowns in the first half, and King scored one (all three were followed by successful 2-point conversion attempts) before halftime.

While defense didn’t have many highlights in a game where two-third of the drives ended in touchdowns, the few that happened belonged to the Giants.

Senior fullback Hayden LaFleur caught a Richardson touchdown pass to give Brady a 28-24 lead. H-D sophomore defensive end Jack Sheppard forced a fumble on the ensuing drive and senior lineman and captain Jason Doyle pounced on it.

Shortly after that, Richardson scored on a 1-yard keeper to give Brady a 35-24 lead.

King scored his second TD of the game to cut the Giants’ lead to 35-30, but H-D fumbled the ball away again, this time with Doyle forcing the fumble and Sheppard recovering it, setting up Miller’s second rushing touchdown and a 43-30 lead on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Both teams scored two more touchdowns in the final 11 minutes of the game, but Brady was able to make just a few more plays defensively and stayed composed and disciplined down the stretch when the game got a little chippy. Clauss credited senior linemen and captains Doyle and Jackson with managing those situations.

“We kept our composure, we didn’t retaliate and we played good football,” Clauss said. 

Clauss also highlighted junior Cole Chandler, a soccer player who is also playing football for the first time in his life this fall. Chandler caught a short pass from Richardson for a touchdown with 3:05 left in the game and also made key plays in the first three weeks of the season while Miller and other skill players were injured.

“(Chandler) is a fast kid,” Clauss said. “He is a difference maker on the edge. We can run jet sweep, it makes other teams have to play football. That’s what was missing in the two tough losses that we had.”

After a dominant 28-0 win over Newfound to open the season, the Giants lost to Farmington-Nute, 14-13 in overtime, and 63-8 to undefeated, first-place Raymond. A loss on Saturday would’ve put Bishop Brady at 1-3 and mean that the Giants would likely have to win out in order to make the playoffs. But with the victory, Brady sits in a tie with H-D and Farmington-Nute at 2-2 apiece for the fourth and final Division IV playoff spot. Raymond (4-0), Mascoma (3-1) and Franklin (2-1) are currently the top three seeds. 

Although Bishop Brady had a strong performance on Saturday, Clauss knows what his team has to do moving forward. 

“We still need to clean up self-inflictive sounds, we make mental mistakes,” Class said.

Richardson accidentally took a knee instead of spiking the ball on the final drive of the first half, which would have stopped the game long enough for Brady kicker Anthony Dow time to attempt a field goal (Dow was 4-for-4 kicking extra points). An offensive holding penalty against the Giants late in the third quarter stalled their drive.

“Most of (the players) are in their first or second year playing football, they’re still learning the game,” Clauss said, adding that, “(H-D) is a good team, they played like it was their homecoming and they never gave up.”

The Hillcats made history just by playing in Saturday's homecoming game, although it was far from the result they wanted.

“Tough game today for H-D football,” HD head coach and athletic director Jay Wood said. “Brady earned the win and we need to improve and play with a sense of urgency.”

Quarterback Joshuwa Perron (1-for-4, 10 yard pass to King), Ethan Franklin (nine tackles) and Keagan Lamos (eight tackles) were the other key players for H-D.

Bishop Brady plays at second-place Mascoma on Saturday at 2 p.m., while H-D will travel to  Newfound.