Hornets take down Mustangs, 40-7
The Athens Hornets rolled to a 40-7 win over Life Waxahachie Friday night, improving their record to 2-0 on the year.
While the offense went past the 40-point mark for the second straight week, this game belonged to the Hornet defense.
"The second drive, they kind of drove it down our throats. Not kind of, they did," said Coach Zac Harrell. "But after that our defense played lights out. If they don't play like that in the first half then it's not that score and we may lose. But our defense played great, set the tempo."
The defense recovered three Mustang fumbles, including two by Jaxson Stiles in the first half, and forced Life Waxahachie to punt four times in the second half.
That effort gave the offense a chance to find its rhythm, which it did in the third quarter. The Hornets scored three times in the quarter to blow open a 13-7 halftime lead.
Senior running back Jecorey Roberts had another big game for the Hornets, picking up 140 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. Jamauri Manning added 50 yards and a touchdown on five carries, and Bobby Thomas had 33 yards on seven carries.
The Hornets gained a lot of yardage on the ground in the second half by going up-tempo.
"They had a lot of kids playing both ways and we wanted to use that against them," Coach Harrell said. "So we played fast and tried to run it right at them and our backs ran really hard and our offensive line did a good job."
The Hornets balanced their running attack with QB Ty Arroyo hitting five different receivers for 216 yards and two touchdowns. Arroyo completed touchdown passes of 32 yards to Jorien Ray and 25 yards to Jermarius Moore. Arroyo also ran one in for a touchdown.
Next week, the Hornets will welcome Fairfield to Bruce Field for Homecoming. Fairfield lost to Brownsboro Friday night, 31-28.
SCORING
ATHENS (1Q 9:35): Ty Arroyo 2-yard run. Kick no good. -- 6-0
ATHENS (1Q 0:00): Jecorey Roberts 2-yard run. Anthony Arciaga Kick. -- 13-0
LIFE (2Q 8:00): Colby Grmela 9-yard pass to Dreylon DeQuire. -- 13-7
ATHENS (3Q 5:10): Jecorey Roberts 1-yard run. Anthony Arciaga kick. 20-7
ATHENS (3Q 2:35): Ty Arroyo 32-yard pass to Jorien Ray. Anthony Arciaga kick. 27-7
ATHENS (3Q 0:00): Jamauri Manning 16-yard run. Kick no good. 33-7
ATHENS (4Q 1:58): Ty Arroyo 25-yard pass to Jermarius Moore. Anthony Arciaga kick. 40-7
DID YOU NOTICE
-- Talk about trusting your defense. With just a 6-point lead and less than 5 minutes before halftime, Coach Zac Harrell went for it on 4th and 7 from his own 39. The offense did not get the first down, but the defense responded by holding the Mustangs to zero yards on four plays.
-- The Hornets scored on the final play of both the first and third quarters. I think that's the first time I had 0:00 as the scoring time twice in one game.
-- The defense had three takeaways for the second consecutive week.
-- On the Hornets' first drive, No. 13 (Jorian Ray) and a 19-yard reception and No. 19 (Desmond Garrett) had a 13-yard reception.
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