Quarterback Hunter Moore ran for three touchdowns and passed for another, and his defensive mates came within a field goal of a goose egg Thursday as East Hamilton beat Central 49-3 in a District 6-AA game.
The win gave the Hurricanes their first 2-1 record in school history.
"Total team effort," East Hamilton coach Ted Gatewood said. "When you're dealing with 17- and 18-year-olds you don't know if it's Jekyll coming off the bus or Hyde. Tonight we had some kids step up."
That group would definitely include Moore, who completed six of eight passes for 104 yards as a quality complement to a running attack that netted 296yards.
Much of that rushing total belonged to area rushing leader Logan Jackson, although he stood along the sideline in the third and fourth quarters. The senior tailback touched the ball just 11 times but finished with 169 yards and a TD.
"I'll take two quarters of that," Gatewood said. "We rested him, got the young guys some reps. We're planning on it being a long season."
That's long as in a run deep into the playoffs, but the Hurricanes still have work to do despite major improvement over last week's 31-28 loss to Ooltewah.
"We're still making too many small mistakes," Gatewood said.
He has talked to his players this week about needing to finish strong. It was obvious that they listened, tacking on three TDs to a 28-3 halftime advantage.
As much as Jackson means to the club, Moore took full advantage of the offensive line, too. He scored the second, third and fourth TDs on 1-yard runs.
"The holes were 5 yards deep on every one," Moore said. "The O-line did an exceptional job on both pass-blocking and run-blocking."
He had equal praise for the defense, which limited Central to 74 yards on 35 rushing attempts.
"Last week we had a few missed tackles, but the guys worked hard in the film room and on the practice field," Moore said.
"Central has some athletes and some kids with speed," Gatewood said, "but our kids adapted to what they saw and adjusted to their speed. They worked hard this week."