By Zack Steele, For the Tribune
FLORENCE — Hewitt used a daunting defense and a 21-point second quarter to oust Florence from the playoffs in Florence Friday night.
The Hewitt defense was stifling against the vaunted Florence rushing attack, allowing just under 50 yards rushing against a Falcon team that averaged 228 yards per game.
Hewitt opened the scoring in the first quarter with Peyton Floyd finding his big junior tight end Donovan Price for a 23-yard touchdown pass. Riley Rigg’s PAT made it 7-0 with 5:52 left in the first half.
Florence would answer with a drive and score late in the first to make it 7-7.
Then the blitzkrieg began.
Floyd would find Brett Moseley for a six-yard touchdown pass with 10:23 left in the half and call his own number 4 minutes later to stretch the lead to 21-7 with around 6 minutes to go in the half.
Florence would answer with a drive of their own to stay in the game for the moment, and Hewitt led 21-13.
Hewitt wasn’t done yet, as Floyd led the Huskies on an 80-yard drive in a little over a minute, scoring with 3 seconds left in the first half.
In the third quarter, things settled down as neither team was able to score.
Riley Rigg would stretch the lead to 31-13 early in the fourth quarter with a field goal after a Hewitt drive inside the Florence 10 stalled.
Florence would answer right back with a touchdown of their own with 9:28 to play, cutting the lead to 31-20.
Hewitt would finish the game with a long drive capped off with another Peyton Floyd touchdown run to put the game on ice with a little over a minute to go.
Unofficially, Floyd passed for 22-25 for 195 yards and 3 touchdowns, while carrying the ball 25 times for another 134 yards and two scores. Jaqson Melton would add to the total with 20 carries for another 124 yards.
Head Coach Josh Floyd said the victory over a solid Florence squad was well-earned against a team that appears to have improved each week during the season. “It was a hard-fought win. Florence has been playing very well recently and had won six games in a row heading into tonight,” said Floyd.
“It was a really good, physical football game and I think our defense did a great job stopping the run. I really feel like that was the difference in the game,” Floyd added. “They have some really good athletes, that’s for sure and they’re one of those teams that seem to have gotten better.”
Floyd said he felt the team did a great job minimizing some of the mental errors that have troubled the Huskies throughout the 2022 campaign.
“I thought we played a lot of good football tonight,” Floyd said. “We did have too many penalties but I think our guys made a lot of plays on both sides of the ball.”
Hewitt will travel to face Region 3 foe Hoover in the second round in a rematch of the 2021 quarterfinal match and it will be the first meeting since a 17-7 loss on September 16.