Hawks Bounce Back, Blank Pirates in Home Opener

After a humbling defeat to open the season at the hands of a potent , Hazelwood Central got back to the woodshed this past week for some good old-fashioned smashmouth practices. The result was not good news for the .

"We got after it, and we're going to get after it again," said Hawks first-year coach Van Vanatta. "We haven't had to do that the past few years, but this year, we have to because we're so young."

Behind the legs of junior running back Dorian Williams and senior quarterback Sean Wills to go with an opportunistic defense that forced four turnovers, the Hawks got back to the winning ways with a 43-0 rout of inexperienced Pattonville Saturday in the Hawks home opener at Central High School.

Williams paced the Hawks (1-1 overall and 1-0 in the Suburban North Conference) with 134 yards on the ground and a pair of touchdowns, while Wills also scored two rushing touchdowns.

"The kids did what we've been working on, they executed, they didn't make mistakes," said Vanatta, whose offense produced only 53 yards against De Smet in Week 1. "When they do that, the scoreboard's gonna take care of itself."

In a game that was moved up two hours to an 11 a.m. start time because of the soaring heat, Williams opened the scoring when he took in a Wills screen pass over the middle and went in from 5 yards out with 1 minute, 46 seconds left to play in the opening quarter.

Wills, who rushed for 44 yards on only seven carries, took a draw play up the middle for an 11-yard touchdown 57 seconds into the second quarter and Williams capped off a drive late in the second quarter with a 4-yard run. The Hawks led 21-0 at halftime, with Williams leading the way with 102 rushing yards.

"The line was blocking and when that happens, everything was going good," Williams said. "We just wanted to win. We came off a bad loss last week. We just wanted to come out here and prove ourselves. ... We knew what we had to do because they came off a bad loss last week (55-0 at Hazelwood East). We knew they wanted to try to come into our house and try to beat us. We just had to come our here and play hard."

Added Vanatta, "If you can get into the second level with any running back, you're going to be successful. It goes back to our O-line, but he does a good job and has a lot to prove as well. Last year he got beat up a little bit, but he had nowhere to go. Sometimes you've got to lower that shoulder and get what you can get and he did that."

The Pirates (0-2 overall and in the SNC), are going through their own growing pains. The offense opened the game and moved the football with sophomore Lamar Wilkes starting at quarterback in place of the injured Darren Davidson. But that opening drive stalled out and then it was tough going the rest of the way as the Pirates have not scored a point yet this season.

"I learned that we definitely have some young guys that want to compete," Pattonville third-year coach Steve Smith said. "We've got some guys that are ready to step into a starting role when we have guys that want to turn the corner. Obviously we're going to have to struggle a little bit to get it done, but we've got to keep fighting. There's not going to be any quit. I'm not going to allow that, I know the coaches won't allow that, and I hope that these seniors don't allow that."

Central put the game away in the third quarter, scoring 16 points in a span of 1:03 and make it a 30-0 game. Jonathan Harris nailed a 31-yard field goal and then Wills scored his second touchdown of the game 38 seconds later after a Pattonville fumble. Sophomore Shamari Hudson would add a 12-yard interception return for a score, picking off sophomore Carter Hanford's pass as it deflected off the hands of receiver Marcus Perez. Hanford replaced Wilkes at quarterback at the start of the second half. "It's happening because of injuries," Smith said of his quarterback situation.

"You've got guys that are getting dinged up. When one guy goes out, you find out what the other guy's really capable of...It's going to be a learning curve, but we've got to do the necessary things to win."

The Hawks, who totalled 283 yards of offense, limited the Pirates to 171 yards of offense for the game and only one first down in the second half.

"We made a lot of mistakes (last week), so we talked this week about our motto being mistake-free," Vanatta said. "... What we're trying to do right now is figure out our starting lineup. We're trying to figure some things out, but when the kids execute, good things will happen." 

SUBURBAN NORTH

HAZELWOOD CENTRAL 43, PATTONVILLE 0

Pattonville              0    0    0  0  --    0

Hazelwood Central 7  14  16  6  --  43

First Quarter

HC -- Williams 5 pass from Wills (Harris kick), 1:46. 

Second Quarter

HC -- Wills 11 run (Harris kick), 11:03.

HC -- Williams 4 run (Harris kick), 2:11. 

Third Quarter

HC -- Harris 31 FG, 5:09.

HC -- Wills 5 run (run failed), 4:31.

HC -- Hudson 12 interception return (Harris kick), 4:03. 

Fourth Quarter

HC -- Garner 18 run (kick failed), 11:49. 

                                PAT      HC
First downs                 7         15

Rushes-Yards          25-114    35-225

Passing Yards             57        58

Comp-Att-Int          5-17-2     5-14-0

Fumbles-Lost             2-2       4-0

Penalties-Yards         6-65      5-35 

Individual Statistics

RUSHING--Pattonville, Buchanan 11-25, X. Williams 2-3, Brown 2-4, L. Wilkes 2-54, Hanford 3-4, Randall 5-24. Hazelwood Central, Williams 19-134, Simmons 2-5, Wills 7-44, Garner 7-42. 

PASSING--Pattonville, L. Wilkes 3-12-1-57, Hanford 2-5-1-0. Hazelwood Central, Wills 5-12-0-58, Seitrich 0-2-0-0. 

RECEIVING--Pattonville, Lewis 1-23, Perez 1-9, Buchanan 1-25, Smith 2-0. Hazelwood Central, Shaw 1-13, Graves 1-14, Simmons 1-18, Williams 1-5, Quarells 1-8.