By Scott Buttram
With the Huskies eliminated from the playoffs and two games remaining, surely they would phone in the final games and look to next season, right?
Not so fast, my friend. Hewitt-Trussville did show up and then showed off with a school record seven interceptions by six different Huskies for a 31-6 victory over the Huffman Vikings.
“It’s unbelievable to have seven interceptions in any game,” HTHS Defensive Coordinator David Partridge said. “I’m just proud of them because the kids could have easily, with the circumstances, just folded their tents.”
There was plenty of offense, too. Dakota Harwell’s sledgehammer running style was used alternately with Peyton Palmer’s slash and dash speed to keep Huffman off balance. But the forced turnovers by the Husky defense were the story of the night.
“They were more relaxed tonight and made plays,” Partridge said. “They were capable of doing that all year long, but we’ve been playing a little bit more cautious for some reason. Tonight, they just kind of let it go and went after it.”
The defensive secondary flexed their muscles early and often beginning with an Eli Ashley fumble recovery in the first quarter. The Huskies followed with a scoring drive, capped by a 4-yard touchdown from Harwell 45 seconds later to take a 7-0 lead.
The Vikings were then intercepted by Hewitt’s Luc Riddle on the ensuing drive. Hewitt again made the Vikings pay for the turnover, this time with a 4-yard touchdown by Palmer with 11:19 to go in the half for a 14-0 lead.
The Huskies added a 47-yard field goal by Thomas McGettigan to push the lead to 17-0. Bailey Cash picked off the Vikings to end their next drive, and Brandon Woods snatched the third Hewitt interception to send the Huskies to the half.
Senior quarterback Sam Miller found Alec Brown for a 21-yard TD pass to open the second half scoring and stake the Huskies to a 24-0 lead.
With 1:05 remaining in the third quarter, Luke Davis delivered the final blow to the Vikings with an interception that the Southern Miss commitment returned 73-yards for the score. Griffin Wright, a perfect 4 for 4 on the night, nailed the PAT and gave Hewitt a 31-0 lead.
“Luke did a great job of being where he was supposed to be,” Partridge said of the play. “We had a coverage where we had a low safety and a high safety. We had our inside linebackers going and Luke came and filled that hole, executed the defense, stepped right in front of it and made the play.”
Hewitt’s Griffin Pair and Denote Wilson each had interceptions in the fourth quarter before Huffman finally got into the end zone. The Vikings scored on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Marvin Flowers to Tevin Beal with 3:17 to play.
Wilson, fittingly, closed out the night by grabbing the seventh Hewitt interception with 37 seconds remaining
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The Huskies (4-5) will close out the season next week at Gadsden City while Huffman (3-6) will face Jackson-Olin.