Central defensive against Hornets

Saturday, November 08, 2008

MORTONS GAP — If anyone thought the Hopkins County Central football team might overlook the Storm’s regular-season finale against Hancock County on Friday, the team put any such ideas to rest with a 52-0 thumping of the Hornets on Senior Night.

Central’s defense limited Hancock to just 75 total yards of offense and took full advantage of three fumble recoveries and two blocked punts to provide the Storm with great field position all evening long.

The Storm (7-3) did the bulk of their damage during the second quarter by scoring four touchdowns to take a 28-0 halftime lead over the Hornets (4-6).

“It took us a little while to wake up, but once we did, we started playing our kind of football and things started going our way,” coach Rick Snodgrass said. “They had some turnovers that gave us a short field to work with a few times.”

Keith Couch set up Central’s first score of the game on a 66-yard sprint down the sideline. Hornet defender C.T. Reed tackled Couch at the 6-yard line, short of the end zone, but quarterback Luke Crawley punched it in on a keeper on the next play.

Nathan Crick corralled the Storm’s first fumble recovery of the night, catching a ball in mid air from Reed at running back. Central gave the ball right back, however, three plays later on mixed signals in the backfield.

After three offensive plays, Hancock lined up to punt, but Lucas Duncan extended his hand just enough to block the kick and later recovered in the end zone for a 14-0 Storm advantage.

On the Hornets’ next offensive play, running back Eric Doyle lost control of the football and it bounced on the ground before being handled by Central.

Crawley converted on the turnover in just four plays by collecting his second rushing touchdown on a 2-yard keeper to the left side.

Up 21-0, the Storm defense refused to ease up on the Hornets by holding Hancock to another three-and-out. Facing a fourth-and-six from their own 45-yard line, the Hornets attempted to punt, but Duncan penetrated for the block while Anthony Qualls provided pressure as well.

The block marked the fourth of the season for Crawley.

“(Crawley) does a good job on point-after attempts too, but they didn’t get to kick any of those tonight, which is good,” Snodgrass said with a smile after the game. “We’ve managed to block quite a few punts this year. We really spent some time on that and we knew they spread it out and their snapper was a little slow.”

Crawley kept the Storm offense rolling on the ensuing play when he dropped a perfectly placed pass over the shoulders of Kevin Couch for a 21-yard touchdown reception in the left corner.

The Central back-ups proved to be just as successful in the second half, led by quarterback Jesse Almon and running back Jaylon McCoy.

Almon and McCoy accounted for all 56 yards of the Storm’s first touchdown drive of the third quarter. McCoy capped it on a 1-yard touchdown run.

Later, senior running back TroyDale Rorer finished off a great performance in his last home game by taking a hand-off and dashing 60 yards untouched for a 42-0 lead.

Kicker Carlos Diaz gave Central just enough points to begin the continuous clock when he knocked down a 24-yard field goal just minutes into the fourth quarter.

Central did not attempt a single pass on its final drive, just trying to run the clock out, but the Hornet defense still could not put a stop to McCoy, who ran 48 yards on the possession. McCoy scored the game’s final points on an 8-yard run.

In the first quarter, Storm fans nervously watched the Hornets control possession for nearly 10 minutes as Central appeared to be in a much closer battle than anticipated contest.

Hancock advanced as far down the field as the Storm’s 3-yard line after a pass interference call gave the visitors a first-and-goal opportunity.

Nathan Crick pushed the Hornets back on a 12-yard loss, sacking quarterback Zach Wettstain. Hancock decided to go for it, but an incomplete pass gave the ball to the Storm on downs.

“We have some leaders in there and (Travis) Watts didn’t want anybody in the endzone,” Snodgrass said of the team’s stand. He kind of made up his mind there and got the job done for us.”

The Storm take to the road 7:30 p.m. Friday to play Franklin-Simpson to begin the playoffs.

Central: 0 28 14 10 – 52

Hancock: 0 0 0 0 – 0

2nd quarter

HCCHS: 10:42, Luke Crawley 6-yard rush, Wesley Ipock XP – Central 7-0

HCCHS: 6:39, Lucas Duncan blocked punt recovery, Ipock XP – Central 14-0

HCCHS: 4:34, Crawley 2-yard rush, Ipock XP – Central 21-0

HCCHS: 2:15, Kevin Couch 21-yard reception from Crawley – Central 28-0

3rd quarter

HCCHS: 9:40, Jaylon McCoy 1-yard rush, Ipock XP – Central 35-0

HCCHS: 4:00, TroyDale Rorer 60-yard rush, Ipock XP – Central 42-0

4th quarter

HCCHS: 10:55, Carlos Diaz 24-yard field goal – Central 45-0

HCCHS: 1:55, McCoy 8-yard rush, Ipock XP – Central 52-0

Hopkins County Central (7-3)

Passing: Luke Crawley 3-5, 27 yards 1 TD, 1 INT Jesse Almon 3-4, 53 yards

Rushing: TroyDale Rorer 6-100 1 TD Keith Couch 3-72 Luke Crawley 2-8 2 TD Jaylon McCoy 9-89, 2 TD Tyler Powell 3-20 Almon 2-3

Receiving: Kevin Couch 3-27 1 TD McCoy 2-23 Micah Rorer 1-30

Blocked punt: Lucas Duncan 2

Blocked punt recovery: Duncan 1 TD

Fumble recovery: Nathan Crick, Travis Watts

Hancock County (4-6)

Passing: Zach Wettstain 3-7, 43 yards Matt Rapp 0-1

Rushing: Tyler Magan 5-0 Wettstain 8-36 C.T. Reed 7-14 Eric Doyle 8-15 Tyler Morris 2-9

Receiving: Jake Eckles 2-19 Ian Mittelberg 1-24

Fumble recovery: Mittleberg, Logan Payne

Interception: Reed 1-28