COLUMBUS – On its first drive against Columbus on Thursday, New Hope did nothing but run the ball.
One play at a time, quarterback Tyrekus Brooks would hand the ball off to either running back Jacob Jefferson or Jeremiah Harkins for bruising charges between and outside the tackles for chunk yardage, or he would simply keep it himself.
Right down the field the Trojans went, keeping the Falcons guessing as they ran the ball, then ran it some more. Jefferson got the Trojans onto the board first on a give from Brooks from 10 yards out, and the Falcons were perplexed – a foreshadowing sign of what’s to come.
Between the three New Hope rushers, the Trojans carved up 337 yards and six touchdowns on the ground and cruised to a 42-13 Region 1-5A victory over the Falcons.
Brooks led the way with 143 yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries, Harkins finished with 99 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries and Jefferson picked up 95 yards and one touchdown on 13 totes. The win marked the second week in a row the team secured a region victory after putting up 42 points.
“We’ve got some good players back there, and that’s who we are,” head coach Allen Glenn said. “We’re going to go how they go. I’m proud of them tonight. I thought we were able to establish the run early and often and we were able to lean on them a little bit.”
After trading punts, Harkins followed up Jefferson’s score early in the second quarter on a 5-yard run up the middle, and notched his second and final score of the night with 3:54 left in the first half from 16 yards away, diving head first with arms stretched out to break the goal line plane. With just over 20 seconds left in the half, Brooks scored his first touchdown run of the night from 27 yards out, and New Hope took a 27-7 lead to halftime. The senior man under center came out in the third quarter and punched in a 7-yard run for his second score of the night and capped the game off with 8:43 left to play with a 1-yard run to give the Trojans (5-2, 2-0) their second win in a row over the Falcons.
For Columbus (1-6, 0-2), it was another frustrating loss that showcased flickers of potential – like in the second quarter when quarterback Dkyren Henderson fired a screen pass to Cameron Mitchell, who zipped up the left sideline and scampered into the endzone to make it a 14-7 ball game all of the sudden – but was once again marred by missed opportunities. Early in the second quarter, Brooks was sacked and fumbled the ball in Trojan territory but Columbus couldn’t get a claw on the ball as it squirted out between the hands of a few leaping Falcons and was recovered by New Hope near its own endzone. The Falcons drew up pressure on the following play and the heat got to Brooks, who carelessly lofted a short pass into the middle of the field and hit the hands of an outstretched Falcon, but he couldn’t hang on to it. The turnover could’ve resulted in an easy pick-6 or or at least gave Columbus a good shot at scoring, but instead the Trojans were able to punt the ball away unscathed.
Another glimpse of good football for Columbus came late in the third quarter when the Falcons embarked on a 12-play 75-yard drive that included a 4th-and-5 conversion on a pass from Henderson to Mitchell. Henderson got Columbus back into the end zone to finish the drive on a 7-yard run.
There were moments in the game where the Falcons showed what they can do offensively, but head coach Barrin Simpson said it wasn’t enough.
“To put it in layman’s terms, they made more plays than us,” Simpson said. “We made more mistakes than they did. This is a game where you have to make plays – have to make plays and be disciplined. Players make plays and we didn’t make enough plays tonight. … We had a couple of opportunities, things like a sack, forced fumble and we had a clear scoop-and-score and we don’t scoop it and we don’t score. Those kinds of plays you have to make. The opportunities to change the momentum are there, but stuff like that we don’t make the play.”
For the Trojans, the win, which is their fourth in a row, brought out some loud cheers and shouts when the clock hit all zeros and is a momentum builder as they prepare for next Friday’s conference contest at Pontotoc. Glenn said there’s no better feeling than ending the week 1-0.
“I know it’s kind of cliche and (is) coach-speak, but that’s the real deal,” he said. “Our goal is to go 1-0 each week, and fortunately we were able to do that.”
Columbus looks for its first region win next Friday at Lafayette.
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