Honaker Tigers tame the Hurley Rebels 35-0 @HonakerTigers @coachgmullins @HurleyRebels

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David Burnworth | March 7, 2021

First I want to thank everyone associated with the Rebels school for the hospitality they showed this Ohio guy especially Mark Cooper, the athletic director who made sure I had current rosters for this article.

My 2nd game in Virginia this weekend took me to scenic Smiley Ratliff Field at Hurley High School for a game pitting the home team Hurley Rebels against Honaker Tigers. This game was supposed to be very close according to calpreps.com but someone forgot to tell the Tigers.

Things got started when Brandon Rife stopped Skylar Miller of the Tigers after just a two-yard gain. Things would mostly go downhill from there for the home team though it was not from lack of effort. When the Tigers defense got on the field big Jason Miller sacked Caden Mullins for a four-yard loss. Later in the opening quarter, Mullins was stuffed by a streak of Tigers to force a turnover on downs. The Tigers offense gave a loud roar when Isaac Perkins did his best Isaac Curtis impression by making a great adjustment on a slightly underthrown ball to make a big thirty-six-yard catch. The drive ended when Miller put the ball on the cold ground and Cannan Shafer came up with it for Hurley. The Tigers defense made quick work of the Rebels ground-oriented offense and forced a punt that resulted in Aiden Lowe catching the punt and racing about forty-yards for the first score of the game. Nick Goodman showed off his strong leg to nail the P.A.T. making this a 7-0 game, with 1:42 left in the quarter. The last big play of the quarter came when Gavyn Helton teamed up with Trevor Miller to stop John Matt Justus for no gain. On the play, you could see how the Tigers defensive line was dominating the Rebels offensive line.

In the 2nd quarter, Dakota Hall would start to dominate behind his big strong offensive line the powerful runner would carry the ball for gains of 15 yards, 11 yards, and cap the trifecta off with a nice four-yard score to put the Tigers up 14-0, with 10:35 left in the half. Hall was suffered what looked to be a knee injury when he was hit clean after another nice run. I think the kid if he did not get hurt could have gone for 250-yards and a few more scores. He was that dominate aided by that strong offensive line. Mullins would stop Justice for a two-yard loss at the 10:08 mark of the quarter. Just a short time after the play by Mullins the Tigers defense got a pick by 6-6-316 pound Lucas O’Quinn. We would see this become a 21-0 game when Trevor Miller galloped in for the score from a yard out. The score was set up on his five-yard run a play earlier. The Tigers defense sacked Caden Mullins again with Gavyn Helton doing the honors, the sack was for ten-yards. The Rebels defense would never quit and with 3:23 left in the half, this showed bigtime when Brandon Rife recovered a fumble by Sean Gill. The ensuing drive netted little due to a nice play from J.C. Horn, who got to Justus for a three-yard loss. The final touchdown of the half came when Skylar Miller made like Ezekiel Elliott racing for a seventy-yard score. Goodman was good again to make this a 28-0 game. Jason Mullins ended the next Hurley drive when he recovered a fumble by Justus.

The second half would see six more fumbles with four of them resulting in turnovers but there were several other nice plays in between. Helton would get to Kevin Looney, the Rebels hard running, running back for a loss of five-yards just thirteen seconds in. The Tigers lined up to punt, the snap was low and caused Goodman to field the ball with his knee hitting the ground resulting in a big loss and a turnover on downs at the 8:41 mark of the third quarter. The Rebels offense showed some life when Looney darted forty-yards to the Tigers three-yard-line. Looney was pinned under the fence that separates the field from the crowd and had to be helped off of the field. On the next play, one of the many fumbles of the half occurred with a Tiger coming out of the pile with the rock. The last play of the quarter that stuck out to me was an interception by Evan Justice on a halfback pass thrown by the Rebels.

In the fourth quarter in between two fumbles, both teams had a big play. For the Tigers, it was a forty-seven-yard spring for a score by Skyler Miller to make the final score 35-0, and for Hurley Looney added a fine-looking thirty-two-yard run.

UNOFFICIAL STATS

Tigers

41 Plays

278 Yards (201 First half)
Passing 1-7

Rebels

58 Plays

106 Yards (8 First half)

Passing 1-6 2 Int’s

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