Maury strikes first, takes down West View

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The stands of Burke-Toney Stadium were packed on Tuesday night in anticipation of the matchup between the Maury Hornets and the Indians of West View.

The Hornets, who fell to undefeated West View by a considerable margin when the teams faced off a season ago, were looking to exact their revenge.

Maury’s Devon Garnett intercepted a tipped ball on West View’s second drive, and the Hornets capitalized, turning that interception into six points and never looking back, defeating the Indians 50-16.

Following the interception, Maury’s Brody Ford threw a beautiful ball to Spencer Smith down the sideline, not only converting the 3rd and 20 they were facing, but marching the ball all the way down to the two-yard line. At the goal line, Ford kept it himself to convert the first Hornet touchdown of the day with a minute remaining in the first quarter.

On the ensuing West View drive, following a penalty, a sack and a tackle for loss, the Indians was faced with a 3rd and 25.

Quarterback Skylan Johnson scrambled down the sideline, made multiple defenders miss with jukes and stiff-arms galore, before finally being taken down a yard short of the first down. The Indians then forced an encroachment penalty on fourth down to convert, before their drive ultimately ended with a turnover on the following set of downs.

That set up the Hornets with good field position, starting their drive in the red zone.

On third down, Ford again connected with Smith on a seam, this time for six. Harrison Kisabeth bulled his way over the goal line on the two-point conversion, giving Maury the 14-0 lead.

Christian Evans hauled in an impressive contested grab for the Indians on the following drive, turning a tipped ball into a 75-yard touchdown, closing the gap to 14-8 following the point after.

Maury wasted no time on their next drive, with Peyton Hager picking up a 60-yard touchdown reception on the very first play. Brody Baldwin made a diving catch on the point after to bring the score to 22-8 late in the first half.

Following another turnover on downs for the Indians, the Hornets got the ball back and almost converted another score before the half, with Ford coming just inches away from converting with Hager and Baldwin, but the score remained the same entering the half.

To open up the half, Hager carried in a 60-yard touchdown to extend the Hornets lead to 30-8 with 7:42 to go in the third.

On the following West View drive, Johnson appeared to have an answer for that score with a 70-yard touchdown carry of his own, but a penalty called it back and the drive had nothing going.

When the Hornets got the ball back, Baldwin punched one in from a yard out to bring the score to 36-8.

For West View, Skylan Johnson returned the following kick for a touchdown to bring the score to 36-16 after he punched in the two point conversion himself.

Kadin Wallen recovered a fumble for West View on the following Maury drive to give the Indians the ball back with 17 seconds to go in the third, but they were unable to convert on the drive.

When Maury got the ball back, Hager punched in his second touchdown on the ground, carrying the ball 16 yards down the sideline to bring the score, then punching in the point after to make it 44-16 with 6:37 to play.

Maury’s final score of the day came at the hands of a two-pronged rushing attack of Tristen Bishop and Oliver Lacy.

They took turns marching the ball down the field before Bishop broke free for the 22-yard touchdown, leaving the score at 50-16 with 53.5 remaining on the clock.

That score would hold, thus the Hornets start the season off 1-0. For West View, any hopes of repeating their undefeated season from last year are now nil, but they look to bounce back in their next game.

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