SPANISH LAKE- Both and Hazelwood East came into Saturday's season-opener with plenty to prove after losing a plethora of letter winners a season ago.
And judging by the Spartans' 55-0 thrashing of the Pirates in the Suburban North Conference opener for both squads at Gorzynski Field, Hazelwood East definitely has a leg up on its counterpart.
The Spartans (1-0) were proficient and efficient from the opening whistle with a quick-strike mentality that caught Pattonville (0-1) by surprise and maybe shell-shocked the Pirates to a point of no return in this contest.
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"Sometimes when you go out there, things are going to happen and you talk about a team that came out here and they were clicking on all cylinders...that was them," Pattonville coach Steve Smith said of Hazelwood East. "It was a good showing for them.
"They do what they do; we do what we do. They did it a lot better than we did today. Football's always going to come down to who's blocking better and who's tackling better and they did it 10 times better today."
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The Spartans were led by senior quarterback Trey Hill, whose first four completions all went for touchdown passes -- three of them in the first quarter.
Hill, who threw for 137 yards and a score in mop-up duty in last season's 24-6 Pattonville victory, completed 4 of 7 passes for 166 yards and those four scores, Diondre' Worthy returned an interception 76 yards for a touchdown and also scored on a 61-yard punt return, and Brandon Fountain caught a pair of touchdown passes.
The Spartans raced out to a 41-0 halftime lead and were never threatened in this one.
"This win today doesn't put us at a comfort zone yet, but it does put us at a peak where we can make improvements, make some things happen," said Hazelwood East coach Brian Simmons, a former assistant at Pattonville looking to get the Spartans back to a state championship. "I told the kids that I've been to the (Edward Jones) Dome three times. It's your turn. It's not about me. It's about you guys...With a little bit more hard work, we knew what we had to work on."
Hill, who sat out the second half in favor of Raeffel Merriweather, delivered a 52-yard touchdown pass to Dallas Vaughn on East's first possession, then connected with Fountain on a 56-yard strike. Both came off third downs and on slant passes up the middle.
"I really wasn't expecting them to play that type of defense, because they played up a lot," Hill said of Pattonville. "I did what I could do and it worked out well."
Added Simmons, "They weren't expecting slants. They were looking for the jet (runs) and everything like that. They didn't know we could pass, but we put the passing game in. It's something we had more time to work on this year."
Bryan Young caught a 41 yard touchdown with six seconds left in the first quarter before Fountain caught his second of the game on a fade route in the second quarter.
"Everything all around was going good," Hill said. "The running game was going, the passing game was going. It was all-around good teamwork. The defense did very well today. Everything went all around today.
"We proved that East is back. We proved that we're not scared of nobody. We're coming back to try and win a state championship this year."
The Spartans put up 385 yards of total offense compared to Pattonville's nine. The Pirates rushed for 11 yards as a team and were minus-2 in the passing department and only picked up one first down in the game. And that came with 5:23 to play in the third quarter.
"The bottom line is we had guys out there that were competing, and those are the guys that we have to build around," Smith said. "Sometimes you're going to have some young guys come in and they're not aware or not sure how to handle themselves in a varsity football game. That's what the film is for, for us to go back and teach them and let them know we've got to bring our level of play way up."
Sophomore Ahmad Huddleston led Hazelwood East with 57 rushing yards on only six carries. Senior Robert Polk added another 54 yards and a score.
Junior Myron Buchanan led Pattonville with 26 rushing yards on 10 carries. Junior Darren Davidson started at quarterback but was replaced in the second half by sophomore Lamar Wilkes.
SUBURBAN NORTH
HAZELWOOD EAST 55, PATTONVILLE 0
Hazelwood East 21 20 7 7 -- 55
Pattonville 0 0 0 0 -- 0
First Quarter
HE -- Vaughn 52 pass from Hill (kick blocked), 8:51.
HE -- Fountain 56 pass from Hill (J. Jones kick), 5:32.
HE -- Young 41 pass from Hill (Merriweather pass to Young), :6.1.
Second Quarter
HE -- Fountain 17 pass from Hill (run failed), 9:06.
HE -- Polk 5 run (J. Jones kick), :21.9.
HE -- Worthy 76 interception return (J. Jones kick), :5.6.
Third Quarter
HE -- Worthy 61 punt return (J. Jones kick), 8:16.
Fourth Quarter
HE -- Washington 5 run (J. Jones kick), 7:10.
HE PAT
First downs 11 1
Rushes-Yards 39-219 19-11
Passing Yards 166 -2
Comp-Att-Int 4-7-0 2-11-1
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 3-0
Penalties-Yards 7-70 3-15
Individual Statistics
RUSHING--
Hazelwood East, Hill 2-21, Polk 10-54, Vaughn 7-31, Huddleston 6-57, Washington 7-23, Harris 4-25, T. Jones 3-8. Pattonville, Davidson 4-10, Randall 1-1, Buchanan 10-26, L. Wilkes 1-1, Smith 1-(-7), Williams 1-1, Team 1-(-21).PASSING--
Hazelwood East, Hill 4-7-0-166, Merriweather 0-0-0-0. Pattonville, Davidson 1-7-1-2, L. Wilkes 1-4-0-(-2).RECEIVING--
Hazelwood East, Fountain 2-73, Vaughn 1-52, Young 1-41. Pattonville, Buchanan 2-(-2).