By Robert Morgan | Published Sunday, September 7, 2008
There was not a lot of defensive highlights in the first half of Friday's football game between Decatur and Gainesville. Both schools were torched by big plays as they combined for nearly 700 yards of offense by halftime.
The second half, however, the Eagles regrouped and played closer to the kind of defense that head coach Kyle Story likes to see. The result: Decatur held GHS to just 60 yards in the fourth quarter and hardly broke a sweat in cruising to a 56-20 road win.
Receiver Chad Harrison was just shy of the century mark as he hauled in 95 yards of real estate. However, the senior came through in the clutch as he caught touchdown passes for 21, 13 and 11 yards to lead a spectacular night for the DHS offense.
The Eagles, who sputtered at times last week against Dallas Madison, never punted this week. Seven of their eight touchdowns came on drives of four plays or less. The performance had a lot to do with the offensive line and improvement by the receivers.
"Those guys up front deserve a lot of credit. They have played well both games so far and are getting better. They will have to keep improving because we have some games coming up against teams that are a whole lot better than Gainesville or Madison," Story said. "Last week our passing game struggled because we dropped a few passes early and it got to some of them. This week we caught those early passes and it just went from there."
Decatur, now 2-0 on the season, struck first in the high-scoring opening half. Quarterback Tim Metts, who completed 13 of 16 passes for 240 yards and four TDs, found the end zone first on an eight-yard scamper. Chris Ortiz was good on all point-after tries and it was 7-0.
The Leopards burned the GHS secondary consistently through the first half. They drove 78 yards in 12 plays on their first drive and scored on a 23-yard TD catch by Kenya Morgan to make it 7-7.
The Eagles were not fazed. In fact, they got an interception by Jake Connally and went on to score four unanswered touchdowns. Harrison danced into the end zone twice and Matt Huddleston ran straight through the middle of the secondary on his way to a 23-yard TD catch.
The final score of the half came from Huddleston again when he scored on a 10-yard run to make it 35-7. Huddleston, who was named the Dicks Sporting Goods Player of the Week for Texas last week, ran for another 167 yards this week on 13 carries.
Gainesville picked off Metts late in the second quarter to close the gap before the break. A 51-yard pass from Keelan Lewis to Francisco Castillo made it 35-14 at the half. That was the third play in two games that went for over 50 yards against the DHS defense.
The second half was all Decatur. Nick Martinez, Ross Madden, Colby Moore, Jesse King and Kole Fuller racked up several tackles near the line of scrimmage to keep the hosts at bay.
The defensive work allowed the offense to put the game away. The Eagles went up 42-14 when Metts broke free around the left side for a 22-yard TD.
Gainesville scored right away on another long pass but Decatur answered with two more scores. Metts hit Harrison for his third touchdown of the night and backup quarterback Colton Parker, a freshman, blasted through the line from two yards out.
Brad Bakker, Keldyn Kee, Dillon Deaton, Clint Moore and Cody Byrd are just a few of the offensive linemen who helped wear down an opponent for the second straight week.
