Sequoyah humbled by Hillgrove

By CHIP SAYE

For the AJC

The Hillgrove Hawks didn’t make things easy on themselves in the first half against Sequoyah on Friday night, but they managed to reach halftime with a comfortable lead.

Enlarge photo

CURTIS COMPTON, ccompton@ajc.com Sequoyah's Brandon Alexander (39) is swarmed by Hillgrove defenders during 1st half action at Hillgrove High School Friday, Sept. 11, 2009.

Related

• Preps: Scores
• Sequoyah-Hillgrove

• Prep Zone blog »

  Richt, Chizik to speak at Georgia Minority Coaches conference

• College Recruiting blog »

  College prospects are being watched on Facebook and Twitter

Latest Georgia high school sports news »

• Follow @ajcprepsports | Others
• Richt, Chizik to speak at Georgia Minority Coaches conference
• Blue Devils sweep Ringgold for third straight title
• AAAA baseball: Loganville wins title
• Bears, Pirates split first two games
• Baseball: Parkview sweeps Brookwood for AAAAA title
• Atlanta sports TV listings

The powerful running of Jabari Hunt-Days and another strong performance by the defense took care of the rest as the Hawks cruised to a 21-3 victory at Cobb Energy Hillgrove Stadium. Seventh-ranked Hillgrove is 3-0 and, after winning at Rome last week, has avenged two of its three regular-season losses from last season.

Hunt-Days was the calming influence in the first half, rushing for 129 of his game-high 174 yards on only 11 carries. And when Hillgrove didn’t have the ball, Sequoyah was unable to mount much of a threat. The Chiefs (1-2) finished with only 28 yards rushing and 144 total yards.

Hillgrove has allowed 20 points in its first three games, but 14 of those were scored by Haralson County in the second half of the opener in a game Hillgrove led 42-0 at halftime.

“Our defense is really rising up for us,” Hillgrove coach Phil Ironside said. “The kids are playing hard.” Hillgrove had a botched pitch that resulted in a 10-yard loss on fourth-and-one. The Hawks jumped offside to give Sequoyah a second chance after missing a 37-yard field goal. They had a holding penalty wipe out a 36-yard touchdown pass. And they mishandled a pitchout on fourth-and-one from the Sequoyah 2-yard line that Kenyan Drake managed to control outside the 10 and take it in for a touchdown.

“The mistakes are going to cost us somewhere down the road,” Ironside said. “We’re getting in the red zone too many times and not scoring.”

After falling behind 3-0 midway through the first quarter, the Hawks took over. Quarterback Synjyn Days threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Trevor Tatum and, after Drake’s touchdown run, passed 18 yards to Chuby Uwadie just before halftime for a 21-3 lead that held up.

Days, who has committed to Georgia Tech and is usually among Hillgrove’s leading rushers, was limited to 22 yards rushing on eight carries. The Hawks finished with 248 rushing yards and 305 total.

“Everybody knows Synjyn,” Ironside said. “He’s playing better football, he’s a better quarterback. His stats are not close to what they’ve been, but he’s very unselfish in distributing the ball, and he’s throwing the ball good. He’s a more polished quarterback.”

Sequoyah quarterback Ben Rogers completed 10 of 20 passes for 117 yards.

-- Produced by Georgia High School Football Daily