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.
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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
Four-star Anderson sophomore cornerback Ace Alston crashes toward the football at the Raptors’ college showcase at Anderson High School on May 7, 2025.
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.
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“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 for a cornerback. Plenty who play in college and even the NFL struggle with it.
Alston describes himself as an aggressive but disciplined corner. He likes to get hands on his opponent at the line of scrimmage, but he isn’t afraid to bait a quarterback, and he’s been working hard this offseason on being even more patient and trusting his smarts and athleticism.
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Dreyer said one of Alston’s best traits is his football IQ. It’s somewhat innate in him, according to Dreyer. He showed up as a freshman with better instincts and more field awareness than most. But over the past two years, through hard work, Alston has learned to think the game, from his assignment to his teammates’ and how they all fit in real time.
Alston showed that last season in the state championship game, when he intercepted a pass at the Anderson 3-yard line with 4:28 left to give the Raptors a chance at the end.
According to Dreyer, Alston likes to say he’s going to be the next Travis Hunter. He hasn’t yet caught a pass in his high school career, but he hopes to get a chance to do so in the future.
“Yeah, I’ve been bugging him a lot,” Alston said. “The competitor I am, I want to help the team as much as I can. I think I could be a good fit on offense too.”
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Alston also believes that playing a bit of receiver could help him play corner at the next level, too. He mentioned Dallas Cowboys’ star Trevon Diggs as one of his favorite defensive backs to emulate. Diggs started his college career at Alabama as a receiver, catching 31 passes with the Crimson Tide. Alston believes that’s part of the reason Diggs is such a ballhawk, with 20 interceptions in 58 career games
Anderson sophomore Ace Alston (6) goes for the runner as Anderson defeated Winton Woods 31-17 Oct. 18, 2024, at Anderson High School.
Alston also models his cornerback game after former Cincinnati Bearcat Coby Bryant, along with NFL stars Sauce Gardner and Patrick Surtain. He loves the way Bryant plays, aggressive and confident, unafraid of hitting a ball carrier regardless of his size. He sees himself playing a similar game to Gardner in that Gardner is so long and athletic that he’s rarely caught out of position. He tries to match Surtain’s fearless physicality.
Dreyer mentioned Alston’s unshakable confidence as another one of his biggest assets. That’s a mindset that most of the world’s best defensive backs share.“I’m trying to be the best player on the field,” Alston said. “You have to go out there with the mindset that ‘I’m going to kill everything. I’m going to lock down everything.’”
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Alston, started playing football when he was 4 years old. He said he loved it from his first game.
At age 4, he was playing with 6-year-olds. In one of his first games, he remembered playing running back and taking a long run up the sideline. He thought he was free, but a defender two years bigger and faster came out of nowhere and popped him.
“I popped right back up and said, ‘I want to do it again.’” Alston said.
Alston is being heavily recruited, with 38 offers already from schools including LSU, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon and Tennessee. In a college program, he’s looking for the same things any young athlete would: A good environment for him to succeed, a strong brotherhood in the locker room, experienced coaches who can make him better. He is also looking for an education that can help him live a dream that doesn’t involve football.
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“I pray to God football lasts a very long time for me,” Alston said. “But I know it’s not forever.”
Alston said for a long time, he has dreamed of opening a steakhouse. He hopes to find a degree that can help him do that and a school that will help him make the connections he needs as well.
Antwoine Higgins: Middle school All-American quarterback turned star linebacker
Kings running back Carson Lindholm (5) is tackled by Anderson defenders Antwoine Higgins (0) and Alex Stanyard during the Knights football game Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
“(Higgins) loves to say that he was a middle school All-American quarterback,” Dreyer said. “After a few reps at quarterback, I just thought he was going to be a top-tier linebacker.”
Higgins has given up the quarterback dream, and he’s doing just fine. One of the most fearsome players in Cincinnati, 247Sports rates him as the No. 22 edge rusher in the country for the class of 2027. He currently holds 31 offers from schools including Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oregon and Tennessee.
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In his recruiting, Higgins is looking for somewhere he can go and get on the field quickly without redshirting. He’s also hoping for good relationships with coaches, a strong locker room culture and a meaningful degree in either business or sports management.
Higgins, like Alston, has been on the football field since he was just 4 years old. He said he wasn’t great at first, a “bench player” for his first year or so of playing the sport.
Anderson defense celebrates after an interception by Antwoine Higgins (0) during the Raptors’ 20-13 win over Winton Woods Friday, Sept. 22, 2023.
Around middle school, Higgins realized he had a chance to be an excellent football player. Back then, he was a decorated quarterback, the position he played at Anderson for all of about half a practice before Dreyer realized his potential on the other side of the ball.
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Higgins has always had to work on his speed. For a while, it was the main thing that held him back, as he was slower than top players at his position. Between resistance running, lower-body strength training, plyometric and even old-fashioned hill running, Higgins has greatly improved his speed and plans to continue.
He often does two or three workouts a day. That doesn’t even count the ones he puts himself through before he jumps in bed, which usually involve body-weight exercises like push-ups.
“You definitely have to overwork yourself,” Higgins said. “You have to push your body to new limits.”
The first thing Dreyer mentioned when talking about Higgins was his “big heart.” If you go to an Anderson-sponsored youth sports camp, chances are you’ll see Higgins somewhere on the field and the kids surrounding him having an absolute blast.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Anderson football top-ranked recruits, Antwoine Higgins and Ace Alston
