Honaker takes slugfest from Central-Wise
Honaker (27) vs. Central-Wise (20)
Written: Sep 20, 2014
BY ANTHONY STEVENS
for the Daily Telegraph
WISE, Va. — It was a thriller, old-fashioned smash mouth football at its best. Honaker improved to 3-0 on the young season with a 27-20 win over Wise County Central at Carl Smith Stadium on the University of Virginia’s College at Wise.
“The only thing missing was a muddy field,” Honaker coach Doug Hubbard said “If we would have had that it would have been an ‘old time’ game. Wise Central has a really good football team. I thought their backs ran so hard.
“Both defenses had a hard time stopping the other team’s offense. It was nothing but downhill running by both squads.”
The contest wasn’t decided until Casey Dye picked off the final pass by Central’s Dalton Mullins as the final horn sounded.
“I can’t be upset with my kids, we fought till the bitter end,” first-year Central coach Luke Owens said. “Coach Hubbard does an excellent job. We will bounce back from this, there is still a whole lot of football to be played.”
It wasn’t a fluke that Central came into the contest undefeated. The Tigers clung to a 21-20 lead with just over two minutes to play. They had a 4th-and-9 on the Central 26. Dye the Honaker quarterback hadn’t completed a pass the entire game. When it mattered most Dye came through tossing the ball to Austin Smith who gained 14 yards for the key first down.
“We were able to run their cornerbacks off with the wide receiver and snuck Red (Austin Smith) in behind them,” commented Dye. “Without that play, they would have had plenty time on the clock to score and that would have been big for Central.”
On the next play, Smith scored on a 12-yard rush up the middle for the margin of victory. Central got the ball with 1:50 left to play on their own 32. They advanced to the Honaker 42 before the Dye interception as time expired.
Senior Central running back Brad Brooks displayed a lot of power and speed throughout the game. Brooks had 196 yards on the ground on 27 attempts with a touchdown. Behind a huge offensive line, the Warriors churned out 225 yards on the ground. Dalton Mullins was 8-of-15 passing for 122 yards and also rushed for a touchdown for Central.
Smith was the workhorse for the Tigers. Smith ran 36 times and gained 181 yards and reached the end zone three times.
Central (3-1) dominated the first half. They ran 37 plays the first 24 minutes to only 18 offensive plays for the Tigers. The Warriors had 180 yards of total offense in the first half but were hurt by three turnovers, two lost fumbles and another interception by Dye who had two in the game.
Honaker (3-0) had only 29 yards of total offense in the first half until they put together a 67-yard scoring drive. It took five plays, and Dye ran a quarterback option around the right end for a 33-yard TD. Jordan Stout kicked the extra point to give Honaker a 7-6 lead they held at halftime.
“Red had been running hard all night and they tried to stop him up the middle,” Dye said. “I knew I had to pull it and took off around the end. Wide receiver Jordan Smith had a great block, without that I would have never got into the end zone.”
Honaker will be home against Twin Valley and Central will host Lebanon next week.
at Carl Smith Stadium
Honaker................................0 7 7 13 — 27
Wise Central........................6 0 6 8 — 20
Scoring Summary
CEN—Stumpf 1 run (kick blocked)
HON—Dye 33 run (Stout kick)
HON—A. Smith 2 run (Stout kick)
CEN—Brooks 1 run (run failed)
HON—A. Smith 3 run (Stout kick)
CEN—D. Mullins 4 run (D. Mullins run)
HON—A. Smith 12 run (kick blocked)
Team Stats
First Downs: HON 15, CEN 17; Rushes-Yards: HON 43-221, CEN 45-225; Passing Yards: HON 14, CEN 122; Comp-Att-Int: HON 1-7-0, CEN 8-15-2; Fumbles-Lost: HON 4-1, CEN 2-2; Penalties-Yards: HON 3-12, CEN 6-33; Punts-Average: HON 2-35, CEN 0-0.
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