Huskies fall short at Central
PHENIX CITY – The Hewitt-Trussville High School football team earned the momentum a couple times, but was unable to hang onto it long enough Friday night.
As a result, Central-Phenix City pulled away in the end, knocking off the Huskies 37-21 in a matchup of preseason top five Class 7A teams at Garrett-Harrison Stadium.
“I thought it was a good, physical football game,” Hewitt-Trussville head coach Josh Floyd said following the game. “We gave up some yards, but we had some big stops, too.”
Despite struggling on offense for much of the first half, the Huskies marched 91 yards on 15 plays to score on quarterback Peyton Floyd’s 5-yard run. The touchdown with 1:36 to play in the second quarter gave Hewitt a 7-6 lead.
However, Central hit a few big plays and converted a field goal to take a 9-7 lead into halftime.
The third quarter belonged to Central, as Zackariah Simmons scored on a 2-yard run, followed up by AJ Harris recovering a fumble in the end zone on the Huskies’ ensuing possession. That gave the Red Devils a 23-7 lead through three quarters, but Hewitt had another chance.
Jadon Loving caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Floyd, then caught a pass on the two-point try to cut the deficit to 23-15 in the early minutes of the fourth quarter.
Central got the ball back and marched down the field, the pivotal play being a fourth down inside the 5-yard line. A Hewitt-Trussville defender broke into the backfield and got a hand on Romello Green, but he wrestled his way out of the tackle and got a first down. He scored on the next play to essentially put the game out of reach.
Simmons scored on a 25-yard run a few minutes later, and Jacob Serena found the end zone on a 10-yard reception from Floyd to cap off the game’s scoring.
“Our offense did some good things and had some good drives, we’ve just got to get better,” Josh Floyd said. “I told the guys before the game, this one game doesn’t make or break our season. We wanted to be on the other end of it, but we’ve just got to bounce back.”
Central quarterback Jaylen Epps started off hot, completing his first seven passes, including a 4-yard ball to Auburn commit Karmello English. Epps finished the night 18-of-30 for 233 yards through the air and ran for 101 yards on 10 carries.
Simmons rushed for 82 yards and Green finished with 43, as the Red Devils had a balanced attack, rushing for 237 and passing for 233 on the night. Jared Wiley led the team with 71 receiving yards on four grabs.
Hewitt-Trussville struggled to gain any consistency all night, with Tomarrion Parker leading the charge into the backfield much of the night. Peyton Floyd had plenty of positive gains, but managed just 50 rushing yards on 29 carries because of sacks.
“They got a lot of penetration in the backfield all night,” Josh Floyd said.
Peyton Floyd finished with 254 passing yards and three total touchdowns. Five receivers had over 40 yards on the evening, led by Donovan Price’s 76 yards on five grabs. Loving had four catches for 63 yards, Ka’Darius Barnes had 58 yards, Brett Moseley finished with 56 and Serena had 42.
“We’re playing a lot of really young guys offensively,” Josh Floyd said. “We’ve got one senior starter and two seniors total playing on offense. This is a football team every single week you’ll see get better.”
Hewitt-Trussville attempts to rebound next week with its home opener against Gadsden City. Central heads to Smiths Station to begin Class 7A, Region 2 play.