Tigers open football season with victory

Hardin County opened their 2010 football schedule with a 19-6 victory against Chester County last Friday night. The Tigers opened up a 13-0 lead by halftime and extended their lead to 19-0 before Chester County scored their lone touchdown in the final quarter of play.

The key stretch of the game happened just before halftime. Hardin County fumbled the ball to the Eagles at the Chester County 6-yard line with just 1:50 left on the clock. The Eagles had to make a decision of whether they would try to run the clock out to halftime or take a chance on moving the ball down field.

Chester County chose the latter. After picking up a first down on their second play to move the ball to their own 21-yard line, the Eagles couldn’t move the ball any further. To make matters worse, they stopped the clock with a timeout and two incomplete passes to give the Tigers one final chance with 21 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

Hardin County quickly made the Eagles pay for their decision to challenge the Tiger defense. Quarterback Barker Burnham completed a 30-yard pass play to Coty Eanes on their first play from scrimmage to give them the ball on the 6-yard line. On the next play, Burnham found J.D. Clausel open in the end zone for a touchdown with just 7.9 seconds remaining on the clock. Eddie Espinoza came on to convert the extra-point to give the Tigers a 13-0 lead at halftime.

“That was definitely a big moment in the game. They gave us an opportunity to do something offensively, and we were able to get some points,” said Tiger head coach William McAdams. Steven Rich scored the first touchdown of the season for the Tigers with a 4-yard run in the opening quarter. Rich added a 1-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to finish Hardin County’s scoring in he game.

McAdams was especially pleased with the way the defense played in their opening game of the season. The Hardin County defense held Chester County to 151 total yards from scrimmage. “We really had a good night defensively. We were also able to move the ball on offense, but penalties really set us back several times in the game. If we can cut down on those mistakes, then we’ve got a chance to be a good football team,” said the Tiger head coach.

Daniel Avila led the Tigers in rushing with 81 yards on 14 carries. Burnham completed 11-of-17 passes for 182 yards. Eanes had five catches for 102 yards. Clausel had three receptions for a total of 47 yards. Rich was the leading tackler for the Tiger defense with 18 total stops. Josh Ivey was second with nine total tackles. Dakotah McFerson had eight tackles. Avila helped out with seven tackles for the Tiger defense.

The Tigers will host Munford in their first home game of the season this Friday night. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Munford has started the season with a pair of victories. The Cougars defeated Fayette Ware by a score of 35-0 in Week 0 and then picked up a 27-12 victory over Covington last week.

McAdams stated that there are a lot of similarities between Munford and Hardin County. He is also hopeful that his team will do a better job of executing than they did in their season opener. “They remind me a lot of us on both sides of the ball. They are very multiple on both sides. It’s really going to come down to who executes the best on Friday night,” said McAdams.

Munford finished last year with an overall record of only 3-7. However, they were the only team in the district to defeat Brighton last year. Hardin County has defeated Munford in each of the last two years, including a 21-12 victory last year.