Coming out of a tough three-point loss to District 6-AA foe Hixson last week, Red Bank needed a win Friday at Howard to keep pace as the playoffs approach.
Malik Davis took care of that quickly with a 54-yard touchdown run on the second play from scrimmage, sparking the Lions to a 60-7 district win. The converted wide receiver finished the game with 174 yards rushing and four touchdown runs in the rout.
After Davis' opening score, Ben Brown returned a fumble for a touchdown on Howard's ensuing possession, and then a 15-yard touchdown run by Davis gave the Lions (5-4, 4-1) a 20-0 lead with 7:04 remaining in the opening quarter.
"Tonight was just about finishing -- about getting our offense rolling and getting our defense on track for playoffs," Red Bank coach Chad Grabowski said after the game. "We're trying to build toward playoffs and get our team on track, and I feel like we did that tonight."
Davis kept up the pressure for Red Bank in the second quarter with a 70-yard scoring run, and he said he wanted to make sure he didn't look past the winless Hustlin' Tigers.
"I just came out here playing like we're trying to win a district championship," he said. "I didn't take (Howard) easy, and I never underestimate an opponent; I just came out here to play hard."
The score at halftime could have been worse, with the Lions driving inside the Hustlin' Tigers' 10-yard line, but Howard defender Alex Jackson forced a fumble and returned it 50 yards to keep the score 26-0 at the intermission.
Friday was senior night at Howard (0-9, 0-5), and football players Deuntea Binford, Devantae Binford, Ladarius Brown and Calvin "Trey" Davenport III were honored along with other senior fall athletes, cheerleaders and band members.
"I've got to give (the seniors) credit," Howard coach Mark Teague said after the game. "They stayed here through it all. I told them from the beginning that we're young and said, 'You guys may not be part of something special, but you can look back later on ... and know when you see Howard is successful that you had a hand in making that happen.'"
Red Bank opened the second half quickly as well, forcing Howard to go three-and-out, blocking Jose Juan's punt and scoring on a 5-yard run by Demarcus Rivers.
On the next possession, Courtney Stamper grabbed a Howard fumble, and he scored a touchdown on the next play as well as the two-point conversion to make the score 40-0 with 9:44 remaining in the third quarter.
The Hustlin' Tigers avoided being shut out with about three minutes left in the period when quarterback Vincent Bowling hooked up with Quattarius Porter for a 41-yard touchdown pass on fourth down.
Red Bank responded by returning the kickoff to the Howard 17 and pushed its lead to 47-7 on a 10-yard run by Davis with 1:42 left in the third.
"Last week we should have won, but we lost," Davis said. "So this week I just tried to come up and make up for all of the things I didn't do (against Hixson)."
The young Hustlin' Tigers team showed signs of life on defense, stopping the Lions offense at times, but they struggled on offense and had no answer whenever Davis ran the ball for Red Bank.
"We're young, and we make a lot of youth mistakes and more experienced teams make us pay for that early," Teague said. "Red Bank is talented, they're very athletic and that gave us a lot of fits early on. I give a lot of credit to Coach Grabowski. He had a good game plan, and our youth caught up with us."
Caleb Tate took over at quarterback for Red Bank in the fourth quarter and scored on a 5-yard run to push the Lions' lead to 53-7 after the extra-point attempt failed. Malik Hubbard recovered a fumble for the Lions and took it into the end zone late in the game to cap the scoring.
The Lions are assured a spot in the playoffs, but Grabowski wants his team to keep up the momentum and improve their position heading into the postseason.
"We need to finish out strong and beat Tyner and get ourself a better playoff seed," he said.
Contact Jim Tanner at jtanner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6478. Follow him at twitter.com/JFTanner.