Hawks open season with dominant win over Louisiana College

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon football team faced a big question early in Saturday's game with Louisiana College.

After the Wildcats marched down the field to score in six plays on the opening possession of the game, the Hawks had to respond. Huntingdon answered with eight touchdowns including three scoring plays of more than 50 yards in a 56-35 win.

"When you play a good team, you know they're going to make some big plays," Huntingdon head coach Mike Turk said. "But the thing we've talked about all week is how you respond when something bad happens. I was proud of the way we handled ourselves today.

"You never know what you're going to get in the first game. They always have a good team and we knew it was going to be a good game. But we were able to pull ahead at the end of the first half and change the dynamic of the game."

The Hawks finished with 652 yards of total offense, the sixth highest total in program history. Before making massive substitutions early in the fourth quarter, Huntingdon was averaging 9.9 yards per play.

The Hawks rushed for 392 yards, the third most in program history, and finished just 22 yards short of the record of 414 set against Principia in 2008.

Junior running back John Iwaniec helped spark the offense with a career-high 179 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries. His rushing total is the fifth highest in Hawks' history and his rushing touchdown total is one shy of the record shared by Courtney Moss and Garrett Fletcher.

"Our offense was able to move the ball well today," Turk said. "John had a big game. He only had 15 carries, but he made the most of his opportunities."

Iwaniec's third carry of the game resulted in a 66-yard touchdown run to answer the Wildcats' opening score. Iwaniec also scored on runs of three and 25 yards.

"I have to give the credit to my offensive line," Iwaniec said. "On the long run, I cut right off of Jesse Williams and all I saw was green field in front of me and I took off. We used a good rotation of backs today and I thought the whole offense executed well. We still have areas we need to improve on, but this was a very good starting point for us."

Huntingdon all but put the game away with four touchdowns in the second quarter. Junior Willie Coleman hauled in an 11-yard touchdown pass from Luke Bailey and after a 3-yard run by Iwaniec, Bailey and Jamichael Bibb connected for a 59-yard touchdown strike and a 28-14 lead. Bailey hit freshman Jaytarius Steele for a 36-yard touchdown just before the half to make it a 21-point game.

In the second half, Bailey scored on a 10-yard run and connected with Nick Haas for a 51-yard touchdown play. Iwaniec closed the scoring with a 25-yard run early in the fourth quarter.

Bailey finished with 260 yards and four touchdowns on 13-of-19 passing. Haas led the receivers with 96 yards on four catches.

Defensively, senior linebacker Jacob Wright finished with nine tackles, two sacks and three tackles for loss. Defensive lineman Phillip Bagley had 1.5 sacks and Drew Wheeler and Kris Cannon each had one sack. Defensive back Demetrius Beverly forced one fumble and defensive back Anthony White recovered on fumble.

Freshman Chase Young was 8-for-8 on extra points.

Huntingdon returns to action on Sept. 12 at Birmingham-Southern at 6 p.m.