19th-ranked Hawks put Blazers away early

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The 19th-ranked Huntingdon football team dominated in Saturday's win over Belhaven University.

The Hawks rolled up more than 700 yards of offense and forced seven turnovers in a 65-21 win over the Blazers. The win was the ninth straight at home for the Hawks dating to the 2014 season.

"This was probably the best I've ever seen our offense perform," senior running back John Iwaniec said. "As far as our execution, everyone did their job today. That's what we were focused on today. Everyone did what they were supposed to and that's what made the big plays for us."

The 65 points are the second most scored in a game by a Huntingdon team. The Hawks scored 76 in a shutout against Principia in 2008. Huntingdon (3-0) finished with 758 yards of offense, the third most in program history, and averaged 8.9 yards per play against Belhaven (1-2).

"I'm really proud of everybody. I told the guys after the game, this was as much of a three-phase win as we've ever had here," Huntingdon head coach Mike Turk said. "That was something we talked about going into the game. We saw some things we thought we could take advantage of in each phase. Our coaches came up with a great plan and the players executed it. The bottom line is we did what we were supposed to do in every phase."

Defensively, Huntingdon forced fumbles on Belhaven's first two possessions and took advantage of four turnovers in the first half. The Hawks added three more turnovers in the second half.

Sophomore linebacker Trey Hayes forced the first two fumbles of the game. The second fumble came at the Huntingdon 11-yard line.

"There is no question those early turnovers took a lot out of them," Turk said. "The second one came deep on our end of the field. It's a situation where it looks like they're about to go in and score and we came up with a turnover. From a motivational standpoint, that was big for us and it had a negative impact on them. The defense made plays the whole game."

After not recording a sack in the first two games, the Huntingdon defensive front pressured Belhaven and recorded five sacks, seven tackles for loss and five quarterback hurries.

"All week, we talked about how the defensive line had to win the battle up front," senior defensive lineman Heath McCray said. "We knew they had a good quarterback and good athletes at receiver, so if we didn't put pressure on them, it was going to be a long day. As a group, the defensive line handled that and tried to make it easier on the defensive backs and linebackers. Today, we worked really well as a group."

McCray led the Hawks with six tackles, two sacks and two tackles for loss. Freshman defensive lineman DeAnte' Griffith added five tackles, two sacks, two tackles for loss and a fumble recovery. Defensive lineman Jarren Jones had a sack and a tackle for loss.

Defensive back Demetrius Brown finished with five tackles, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and an interception. Linebacker Cameron Compton and defensive back Gentry Allen each had one interception.

Quarterback Luke Bailey led the offensive show, accounting for 405 yards of total offense and six touchdowns. Bailey was 18-of-28 for 338 yards and four touchdowns and ran for 67 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries. The six touchdowns responsible for tied the Huntingdon single-game record shared by former Huntingdon quarterbacks Zach Golson, Justin Ridgeway and Neal Posey.

In three games this season, Bailey has been responsible for 15 touchdowns (10 passing, 5 rushing) and 1,212 yards of offense.

"Luke has been playing lights out," said Iwaniec, who turned in his third straight 100-yard rushing game and finished with 119 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries. "You couldn't ask for a better quarterback."

Bailey scored the Hawks' first touchdown on an 8-yard run in the first quarter and added an 11-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter to make it 38-14 at halftime. In between the two runs, he connected with Zach Camp for a 36-yard touchdown, Diggan Andre for a 26-yard touchdown and Otis Porter for a 39-yard touchdown. He threw his final touchdown pass early in the third quarter as Nick Haas scored on a 49-yard play.

Porter led the receivers with five receptions for 114 yards and Haas finished with five receptions for 78 yards. Camp had two receptions for 70 yards. Junior quarterback Chip Taylor threw his first collegiate touchdown with a 39-yard strike to Austin Campbell in the fourth quarter.

Freshman kicker Will Digmon accounted for 11 points as he converted 8-of-9 extra points and scored the first points of the game on a 22-yard field goal in the first quarter.

"It's nice when our offense can do what it did today," Bailey said. "When our defense plays like it did today and when we're playing offense like we did today, I think we're tough to beat. We just have to keep doing that."

Huntingdon returns to action on Oct. 1. The Hawks open conference play at North Carolina Wesleyan.