WINCHESTER - All good things come to end, but so do the bad ones. For Jerrett Smith and the Carrollton Hawks, the first three weeks of the season was a nightmare with three straight losses.
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“I’ve never done that. Ever. JV, anything,” Smith said. “It took a lot of life out of a lot of people and this game brought it back. We needed this big win, not just a win, a big win.”
Carrollton earned that big win as they came out victorious for the first time this season, with a resounding 50-0 victory over the West Central Cougars, in Winchester on Friday night.
The Hawks are now 1-3, but feel they have taken a hold of some momentum and definitely played their best football of the season.
“We felt like we were back to Carrollton Hawk football tonight,” Carrollton coach Nick Flowers said. “This is what we needed. We knew we had a tough start to the season, but it felt its prepared us for games like this tonight. I’m a firm believer that you have to play competition to be good. We feel like this will get us on a roll.”
The offensive production has been present thus far, but it was the defense that wasn’t on point through the first three games by giving up an average of 38 points. Last night they pitched a shutout and surrendered just three first downs.
“I was most happy with how we pursued defensively,” Flowers said. “We mixed it up a bit and got some different guys in (the defensive line). That was our focus coming into this week. We were going to face another running football team and we have to be able to stop the running game.”
One of those new faces was sophomore Nate “Chucky” Cummings, who impressed Flowers and his teammates.
“(Nate) hadn’t played much and he came to play today,” Smith said. “We call him Chucky and he played really well. I’m very proud of him.”
“He came in and made a lot of plays on the d-line,” Flowers said.
The offense was there right from the start.
Wade Prough connected with Jeremy Watson for a 6-yard score early in the first quarter. Prough threw for 136 yards and finished with two touchdown passes and two interceptions.
After a losing a fumble, Watson returned a punt to the 9-yard line and Alex Bowker scored on the first play of the drive to give Carrollton another 14-0 lead like last week, but this week they never let up.
“We executed very well,” Smith said. “Had a couple of adversity moments, a couple fumbles, things like that. We came back and played hard after those plays, and didn’t let them get us down.”
Just over three minutes into the second quarter, Jerrett Smith tallied a 1-yard touchdown run to give the Hawks a three touchdown lead. He ended up 150 yards and two rushing touchdowns.
“I had a lot of great blocks and didn’t get touched in the backfield too often and that helped when I get a full head of steam,” Smith said. It’s a lot easier to get yards afterwards.”
Carrollton added to their lead right before halftime with a 40-yard catch by Bowker that gave the Hawks a 30-0 lead at halftime.
Byron Holmes, Smith, and backup quarterback Blake Struble, ran in scores in the second half.
The Hawks host Pleasant Hill next week and are feeling the good ole’ vibes of winning again, as well as being motivated.
“I think everybody got tired of losing and realized that if we lost this game then we don’t make the playoffs. Unfortunately, that’s what it took to get us fired up, but we’re there,” Smith said.
