Huskies roll past Chelsea
TRUSSVILLE —Everyone got to be on the field for Hewitt-Trussville High School.
From the homecoming court at halftime to dozens of players during the game to a hundred students after Hewitt-Trussville 45, Chelsea 14 went final, a chilly night in Trussville ended the regular season for both teams. The No. 6 Huskies (7-3, 5-2 in Class 7A, Region 3) now focus on the playoffs, while Chelsea (1-9, 1-6) builds toward the offseason.
“There’s a lot of heart. There’s a lot of pride,” said first-year Chelsea head coach Todd Cassity. “We’re not equipped yet to be at this level, and that’s something we’ve got to keep building on and keep getting stronger. We’ve got to get the entire community to make it feel like 7A football. Until we do that, we’re not going to be very successful at this level. This group has a lot of heart and a lot of fight.”
Hewitt-Trussville raced to a 35-0 halftime lead, with both sides of the ball contributing. Quarterback Peyton Floyd completed 7-of-7 passes for 134 yards and touchdowns to Brett Moseley (5 yards), Jadon Loving (3 yards) and Rickey Gibson (71 yards). The other two first-half scores were pick-sixes by Braylon Chatman (55 yards) and Riggs Dunn (80 yards). Tyrell Averhart also picked off a pass in the first half.
“I thought our defense played really well at times,” said Huskies head coach Josh Floyd. “Proud of our defense for making plays.”
The Hewitt-Trussville defense has allowed 17.5 points per game this season, its best average since allowing 15.6 points per game in 2010.
“I think we’ve got a really good group of kids,” Floyd said. “We’ve got some seniors that have played some football, and that helps, obviously.”
In the second half, Chelsea quarterback Carter Dotson found MJ Conrad deep for a 66-yard touchdown to break the shutout. A minute later, Hunter Jones bulled his way for a 6-yard touchdown to increase the Huskies’ lead to 42-7. A Riley Rigg 40-yard field goal made it 45-7 by the end of the third quarter. The game’s final points came on a 4-yard pass from Dotson to running back Emerson Russell with 1:44 to play.
For Chelsea, Dotson was 18-of-32 for 216 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. Russell rushed for 109 yards on 21 carries. Conrad hauled in six passes for 120 yards and a touchdown.
For Hewitt-Trussville, Kennedy Mitchell amassed 62 rushing yards on just four carries. Donovan Price led the receiving corps with 72 yards on three receptions, edging Gibson by one yard. The Huskies played four quarterbacks in the game — Peyton Floyd, Jack Ollis, Noah Dobbins and Parker Floyd — and nine different players rushed the ball. The 11 team receptions were caught by seven different receivers.
Hewitt-Trussville takes next week off before traveling to Florence for the first round of the Class 7A playoffs on Nov. 4. Chelsea’s season ended Friday.
“We never had to ask them to play hard,” Cassity said. “They did it on their own. You get to 1-7 or 1-8 in the season, I’ve seen it where you’ve got to beg them to play, but this group you never had to. This group was there ready to compete every game, and that’s all you can ask for.”