In a sloppy game for both teams, Howard dominated Loudon for a 46-7 win despite four Hustlin’ Tigers turnovers Friday night.
The win, Howard’s fourth in eight games this season, is now more than its previous three seasons combined.
“That doesn’t mean a whole lot,” Tigers coach John Starr said. “I think what means the most to me is our guys are growing every week. They’re getting a little bit better every week, and that’s what our main focus was, just try to get better.
“The next two games are really big. We want to be playing our best football at that time.”
Friday night wasn’t their best, but it got the job done.
“We were able to push them around a little bit. We had to kind of keep the game plan real simple,” Starr said. “To be honest with you, we’ve got so many injuries right now we just had to stay with what we could do and get away with it. We’d like to open up the playbook a little more and do things a little different, but because of the injuries we were kind of forced to play small ball and a little bit of power football.”
The defense and the ground game were key for Howard. The Hustlin’ Tigers forced Loudon (0-7) into difficult third- and fourth-down situations that the Redskins couldn’t convert on. Two interceptions returned for touchdowns made up for Howard’s turnovers, some of which were deep in Loudon territory.
“I was real pleased with our defense. (The Redskins) had a great scheme and they caught us in some bad situations a couple times. Playing inexperienced people out there really hurt us and cost us a little bit,” Starr said.
Howard accounted for more than 200 yards on the ground and more than 100 through the air. Its speed on offense was too much for Loudon. The Hustlin’ Tigers raced past defenders and used an array of spins and jukes to avoid tackles that led to long touchdowns.
On the first touchdown Howard’s Jacques “Moe” Yarbrough caught a short pass from senior quarterback Vincent Bowling and took it 73 yards after making two defenders miss and outracing the Loudon secondary.
Loudon’s second drive came after Howard’s score, but the winless visitors couldn’t move the ball after a 36-yard run and were stuffed on a fourth-down conversion attempt.
Howard took a 19-0 lead after turning another short pass into a 53-yard touchdown on the Tigers’ third play from scrimmage. The following Loudon possession resulted in its lone touchdown.
Kedarrius Phinazee’s 30-yard interception returned for a touchdown put the Hustlin’ Tigers up 25-7 going into halftime.
Three more scores and a safety highlighted Howard’s strong second half, forcing the clock to run for the rest of the fourth quarter.
Contact Shakeem Holloway at sports@timesfreepress.com