Published: October 29, 2009 11:46 pm      

Hornets heating up

Huntsville’s offense putting up impressive numbers during recent three-game win streak

Huntsville’s offense heated up after halftime in Waller three weeks ago. The Hornets exploded last week in Magnolia.

Once the weak link in the Huntsville arsenal, offense is quickly becoming one of the team’s strengths.

After struggling to get anything going for most of the first five weeks of the season, offensive coordinator Kane Harris was given the go-ahead to make a couple of personnel changes.

Harris moved big Shaquille Ross into the starting running back slot, plus he shuffled some players on the offensive line.

Suddenly, a team that was averaging fewer than 4 yards per rush and 230 yards of offense per game started picking up nearly 7 yards per carry and averaging 400 yards of offense each week.

With its offense in a groove, Huntsville (4-1 in District 18-4A, 5-3 overall) won a huge game against Montgomery, then the Hornets rolled past Magnolia last week.

“A little of it is our scheme; a lot of it is our players,” Harris said Thursday after the Hornets held a brief walk-through workout in the old gym at Huntsville High. “The players made a commitment to practice hard every day and to perform on Friday nights.

“We didn’t change much,” Harris added. “We changed one of our counter schemes to better fit our personnel. The changes we’ve made have helped, but really we’ve just kept doing what we’ve been doing.”

After Brenham held Huntsville to 143 yards of total offense in the second week of the district season, the Hornets made a few changes and turned into a different team.

Huntsville, which has already clinched its second consecutive playoff spot for the first time since the 1991 and ’92 seasons, amassed 257 yards of offense against Waller. The Hornets compiled 316 yards of offense against Montgomery and 543 more in Magnolia.

Ross and quarterback Justin Gilbert helped Huntsville pick up a season-high 378 yards on the ground last week. Gilbert also completed 10-of-17 passes for 165 yards.

As impressive as the recent offensive numbers are, the Hornets have also taken care of the football and stayed away from the penalties that hurt them early in the season.

Huntsville only turned the ball over once against Montgomery, and the Hornets had no turnovers last week.

In the 10 quarters since halftime of the Waller game, the Hornets have been penalized only 12 times for 97 yards. Twice in single games, they exceeded that yardage total earlier this season.

“It has a lot to do with the confidence level of our kids,” Huntsville head coach Mitchell Coey said on the eve of tonight’s game at Magnolia West. “As we’ve progressed, we’ve been talking to the guys about not making costly mistakes.

“There has been a snowball effect. That’s a hard thing to turn, but once you turn it, you stop making those killer mistakes.

“We’re going to play a game this week that may be conducive to turnovers,” Coey added. “It’s going to be sloppy and the ball’s going to be wet, but the kids know now that they can make a couple of mistakes and overcome them.”

Thanks to their stingy defense, which pitched its second shutout of the season in Waller, the Hornets overcame five turnovers in a 21-0 victory three weeks ago. Since then, the Hornets have played close to error-free football.

“It’s a question of people believing in the system. That always helps,” said Ross, who has rushed for 167 yards on 28 carries (a 5.9-yard average) in the past two games.

During that same stretch, Gilbert has rushed for 308 yards on 38 carries (an 8.1-yard average), with touchdown runs of 44 and 64 yards. He has completed 18-of-33 passes in the past two games with no interceptions.

“Gilbert came into the season as our returning star, the guy who would have to carry us,” Coey said. “He’s learned that he doesn’t have to carry our team. There are a bunch of guys who can make plays — Gabe (Franklin), Trevion Byrd, Shaq, (Mark) Wheeler and (Ross) Nesselrode. We’ve got a lot of talented players.”

Ross said those talented players are going hard every time the ball is snapped. That, Ross believes, has made the biggest difference in the Hornets’ offensive evolution.

“From where I am at running back, it looks like everybody is giving it all they’ve got on every play,” said Ross, who is also a key contributor to Huntsville’s defense.

In the past couple of games, Ross and Gilbert are getting plenty of time and room to operate. Huntsville’s offensive line has made steady progress every week. The big boys who do the dirty work up front have adjusted well and figured out Harris’ spread offense. They’re also doing the little things that their position coach, Lute Croy, asks them to do.

“To be honest, early in the season a lot of it was our fault,” center Jimmy Spivey said of the Hornets’ offensive struggles. “The offensive line was not doing as well as it’s doing now. We’re getting better every week.

“We looked at a lot of film to see what we were doing wrong,” Spivey added. “Then we’d work on things we did wrong. The more we worked on those things, the better we got at them. Everything came together at the same time, it seemed.”

Harris said he couldn’t be happier with the progress his players have made to this point. He wants the Hornets to keep going hard and continue striving to improve.

Do that and Huntsville may make some noise come playoff time.

“If we keep getting better,” Harris said, “we’ve got seven weeks left.”



Hornet football notes

and quotes

A much-improved Magnolia West squad — The Mustangs took some lumps in their first varsity season last year. Coach David Joiner and his young Magnolia West team learned a lot during a 2-7 season, which included no wins in District 18-4A play.

This year, the Mustangs already have notched a couple of district wins, and they head into tonight’s game against Huntsville with a legitimate chance to make the playoffs.

Magnolia West, which beat Willis 40-20 in the season’s first district game, has lost three in a row, including a 23-9 defeat at Montgomery last week.

“Magnolia West has gotten a lot better,” Huntsville senior Shaquille Ross said Thursday. “It’s going to be muddy and crazy things can happen on a sloppy field. We’ve got to be focused because it’s really easy to let a team slip up on you and beat you.”

The Mustangs, who led Montgomery 9-3 at halftime last week before dropping a 23-9 decision, are led by senior fullback Dustin Corkran (468 yards and five touchdowns), senior receiver Chad Groves (315 yards rushing; 116 yards receiving) and senior quarterback Josh Logan (304 yards passing and four touchdowns).

Magnolia West runs its offense out of a straight-T set, which presents some problems, but not nearly as many headaches as Magnolia’s wishbone attack.

“They don’t run the option as much as Magnolia,” Huntsville head coach Mitchell Coey said of the Mustangs. “They like to run the crossbuck and the sweep. We’ve just got to get after them and tackle.”