| John Renshaw •
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• Published: October 09. 2010 4:55AM |
HURRICANE - Desert Hills players stood on its sideline pumped after building an early 10-point advantage against Region 9 leader, Hurricane.
The Thunder fans - who made the trip northward - were bubbling with confidence and could taste a possible upset special.
Then HHS quickly snapped Desert Hills back to reality after reeling off six unanswered touchdowns to keep their undefeated region record intact with a 42-13 win on Friday night.
"We started slow, but I don't want to take anything away from them. Desert Hills came out with a great game plan," said Tigers coach Chris Homer, whose group improved to 4-0 in region and 8-0 overall. "We made some adjustments on both sides of the ball and got going there in the second quarter."
The Tigers averaged 283 rushing yards per game entering Friday's contest.
So obviously Desert Hills (2-2 region, 5-2 overall) placed eight and nine defenders in the box to stop the lethal option attack.
After forcing a Tigers punt on the first possession of the game, the Thunder didn't let up and in turn went 75 yards on 11 plays on the ensuing possession, ending with a Mike Needham one-yard touchdown run with 5:38 left in the first quarter.
The veteran running back and quarterback Porter Harris were instrumental in leading the charge.
Early in the second, Desert Hills' Jalen Weaver intercepted Adam Long's pass as the Thunder took over at the Hurricane 26. Yet, failing to pick up a first down ended the once promising drive with a Chase Webster 45-yard field goal.
With that said, though, it was all Hurricane from there on out.
HHS ended their next five possessions with touchdowns as well as recovering a punt block deep in Desert Hills' territory for another score.
In place of the injured Robert Reeve, junior backup running back Brian Scott picked up the slack with 93 yards on 14 carries and two touchdowns. It was his five-yard run up the middle that gave the Tigers their first lead, 14-10, with just 23 seconds left to go in the first half.
"Our offensive line did a great job creating holes tonight," Scott said. "We have a great scheme that allows our (running backs) to create. One of our strengths offensively is we're able to mix it up with different ball carriers to keep defenses guessing."
Like an angry bear who hasn't eaten in a while, Hurricane came out in the second half aggressive.
On Desert Hills' first drive of the half, the Tigers forced a three-and-out (negative three-yards) from the Thunder 17, which ended in Webster's punt being blocked and Hurricane recovering in the end zone to increase its lead to 21-10.
The Thunder had difficulties finding their first quarter groove as they failed to tally a first down on either of their first possessions of the second half.
Harris finished the 13-of-27 for close to 90 yards. His counterpart - Long - completed 6-of-10 for 57 yards.
Hurricane totaled 359 yards of total offense with 286 coming from the ground. Jarom Healey had 84 yards on 15 carries and Trann Smith contributed 77 yards on seven carries.
Up next for Hurricane is Canyon View at home next week while Desert Hills welcomes Cedar at 7 p.m.
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