Anderson High School football was one score away from a season for the ages in 2024.
Under head coach Evan Dreyer, The Raptors won their first 15 games of the season on the way to the Division II state title game, where they finally lost, 20-13 to Avon on a snow-blanketed Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton.
Much of that success was thanks to a defense that didn’t allow more than 10 points until its seventh game of the year and averaged just 10.75 points allowed per game.
A portion of that success was thanks to a pair of star Raptor defenders in the class of 2027. Cornerback Ace Alston is rated a top 100 player in the country and the No. 2 player in Ohio for the class of 2027. EDGE Antwoine Higgins is rated just behind him, a top 200 player and Ohio’s No. 4 player.
The Enquirer spoke to both Alston and Higgins to help readers get to know a pair of Cincinnati’s rising star football players:
Confidence, physicality headline future restaurateur Ace Alston’s game
In fall 2023, then-freshman Alston showed up to Anderson’s preseason camp weighing 145 pounds. Still, even at that weight, he could make a tackle.
“It’s more mental than anything else,” Alston said. “You have to want to go make that tackle every single time. If you let them bring it to you, you’re not going to make the tackle.”
Alston hasn’t faced too many major challenges through his high school career, but his lack of weight as a freshman was one of them. It isn’t easy for a skinny kid to gain weight, especially one who’s burning calories like a train engine playing high-level sports every day. It’s taken a lot of discipline, meal-prepping and protein shakes, but Alston is up around 180 about two years later.
That’s the first thing he mentions when talking about his game is his ability to make open-field tackles. That’s a premium skill…
Source link : https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/high-school/ohio-high-school/2025/07/04/ohio-high-school-football-recruits-antwoine-higgins-ace-alston-alabama-lsu-osu-notre-dame-2025/84459543007/
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Publish date : 2025-07-04 04:05:00
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