Tigers blank Grundy
Grundy (0) vs. Honaker (54)
Written: Sep 25, 2015
By LLOYD COMBS
for the Daily Telegraph
HONAKER, Va. — Honaker didn’t run a lot of plays Friday night.
It didn’t need to.
The undefeated Tigers averaged nearly 13 yards per play from scrimmage in knocking Grundy from the ranks of the unbeaten with a 54-0 rout of the Golden Wave at Emats Stadium.
On Honaker’s third play of the game, with three receivers set out to the right side, Bryson Bostic broke free on a simple trap on third-down-and-21 and went 82 yards down the left sideline for the first touchdown of the game.
“I busted out and I saw nothing but open field. I got a really good trap block on that play,” said Bostic, who finished with 121 yards on just six touches.
The Tigers amassed 279 yards of offense on just 20 plays on the way to a 33-0 halftime lead in a battle of two young teams.
“This shows we can play, play with the good teams and compete,” added Bostic, whose Tigers, like Grundy, had not played a team with a winning record before Friday night.
Honaker (5-0) scored six times in the first half, including a pair of Jordan Stout field goals. The first score was the longest, but it was not the last big play.
“That play, when we were backed up so far and Bostic breaks a big run, I really think that set the tone and more so than anything else,” said Honaker coach Doug Hubbard. “That was huge.”
Sophomore quarterback Hartley Hilton added a 44-yard TD run on the Tigers’ fifth play from scrimmage and later tossed a 64-yard TD pass to Avin Parrott.
Parrott added scoring runs of 11 and 1 yards and finished with 57 rushing yards and 92 receiving yards. Honaker gained 424 yards of total offense on a total of 33 plays.
“The offense does their job, the coaches call the right plays at the right time and we just executed to the best of our abilities,” Parrott said. “Everybody likes to touch the ball and everybody likes to do big things with it and we have a bunch of people who can do great things with the ball when they get the opportunity.”
After the first couple of plays Honaker took over the offensive and defensive lines the rest of the way, while Grundy failed to move the ball and then suffered a couple of key injuries. The Wave (4-1) lost leading rusher Jacob McNutt to a possible turf toe injury.
“We knew going into that Honaker had the ability to make the big plays,” Grundy coach Jeremy Ward said. “They’ve scored on a lot of big plays. We just got out of position and they took advantage of it.
“Our offensive line couldn’t get going. Then we sustained a couple of injuries and that took our game plan away. We did stuff that we were prepared for, but hadn’t planned on, so to speak.”
Honaker didn’t necessarily have more overall experience than Grundy, but its returnees had more big game experience, even with backups who played in last year’s run to the state semifinals.
“I thought our defense played well and we were a little better in the kicking game with the Stout kid. I thought it was a good team effort in a lot of areas,” said Hubbard.
“I emphasized that in the pre-game, that we’ve had a little bit more recent history with us than they did and that can play a big role, especially when you’re playing a good football team.
“I think that played a little bit of a role, especially when we got up early. Our kids have been in a lot of big football games and we try to approach them all the same.”
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