By Phil Gibson
It was the last homecoming game at Jack Wood Stadium Friday night, but that wasn’t enough to help Hewitt-Trussville (2-3, 2-1 Class 6A, Region 6) pull off a win against Minor (3-2, 2-1 Class 6A, Region 5).
Things started well enough, as senior quarterback Blake Bailey found fellow senior Riley Stokes in the end zone for a touchdown pass to put the Huskies up 7-0 in the first quarter. Later in the first, a T.J. McGettigan field goal extended the lead to 10-0.
“We played a pretty good first half,” said Hewitt-Trussville head coach Hal Riddle. “Not quite as efficient, offensively, as we’d like to be. We had some penalties that hurt us, some big plays that got called back because of penalties.”
Hewitt-Trussville senior quarterback Blake Bailey
file photo by Ron Burkett
Those penalties, and other miscues, started to catch up with the Huskies in the second quarter. After recovering a fumbled punt return, and with help of 30 yards worth of penalties against the Hewitt-Trussville defense, Minor marched down the field on its last drive of the half to score a touchdown. The Tigers scored on a two-point conversion to make the score 10-8 at halftime.
The third quarter was a defensive battle until the closing seconds, when the Tigers scored another touchdown to go up 14-10. That’s when things spun out of control for the Huskies.
On the first possession of the fourth quarter, Hewitt-Trussville went three and out, setting up another Tiger touchdown. A costly interception led to Minor’s fourth touchdown of the night, capping off a six-minute span that saw the Huskies go from a two-point lead to an 18-point deficit.
“They got a couple of deep balls on us there,” Riddle said. “And we put ourselves in a bind when they got a pick on us, and that put them deep in our territory.”
The Huskies did make a game of it late in the fourth quarter. Senior running back Peyton Palmer scored a touchdown on the ground and caught another from Bailey to bring the Huskies within five with three minutes to play. It was too little too late, though, and another Tiger touchdown at the 1:48 mark put the game out of reach.
