Normally when winning the pre-game toss, Central Holmes coach Jim Crowder defers to the second half. But on Friday night against Hillcrest, Crowder won the toss and decided to take the ball.
The Trojans took the ball and scored 28 unanswered points and cruised to a 49-20 win over the Cougars on Friday night.
With the win, the Cougars improve to 5-3 on the season and will be off this week and come back next Friday and play at Oak Hill.
Crowder said he wanted to take the ball to begin the game and set the tone before a homecoming crowd.
“I was extremely proud of our kids,” Crowder said. “I thought we came out and played hard and took care of business. I was worried because last year we came out really late and struggled with homecoming. We won the toss this year and I took the football. We took care of business and went right down and scored and I thought that set the tone for the rest of the game. I thought we played hard and played fast.”
The Trojans got the ball to start the game and needed just four plays to go 38 yards as Wykece Johnson scored on a 2-yard run with 10:15 left in the first. Owen O’Bryant booted the PAT and Central Holmes led 7-0.
The Trojans were forced to punt on its next two possession but finally got going at the end of the first quarter. Johnson scored his second touchdown of the game as the Trojans went 28 yards in four plays. Johnson capped off the drive with a 6-yard run with 5.5 seconds left in the quarter. O’Bryant kicked the PAT and Central Holmes led 14-0.
After an interception, Johnson scored on the first play with a 17-yard run. O’Bryant’s PAT was good and Central Holmes led 21-0.
The Trojans got another interception and got an 8-yard touchdown from O’Bryant who also booted the PAT to take a 28-0 lead. After Hillcrest finally found the end zone, the Trojans added a 20-yard run by C.J. Head and led 35-6 at the half.
“We got a good game from Wykece, C.J. Head and Noah Steen,” Crowder said. “We were able to run the football and control the line of scrimmage. We are getting better and better every week. Hopefully we can take this by week and get healthy. Wykece got hurt and we decided to hold him out.”
In the second half, Hillcrest scored first to cut the lead to 35-12.
The Trojans answered with a 50-yard run by Noah Steen to go up 42-12. The Trojans got the last touchdown from Artino Brown on a 20-yard run with 8:29 left in the game for the final margin of 49-20.
“Hillcrest is a lot better than they have been,” Crowder said. “I knew they would give us some problems with some of the things that they do. I was proud of the way we played on defense. And we got to play a lot of kids and that’s always good. It was a good win for our kids and our fans.”
