S

The Huntland Middle School Hornets beat the Flintville Bobcats 40-12 on the road Tuesday for their fifth win of the season.

The Hornets scored a majority of their points in the first half and held the Bobcats scoreless after halftime to secure their fourth straight victory.

Huntland Middle head football coach Mike Jernigan said his team played hard with good performances being displayed on both sides of the ball.

“We have tried really hard this week to work on some offensive plays that we had been struggling with, and I thought we did a better job on those tonight,” he said. “Our defense played really well. We gave up a couple of big plays, but we had some young kids playing tonight and got a couple kids that are banged up. It’s next man up, and those kids stepped up and did a good job tonight.”

The Hornets started their opening drive at Flintville’s 37-yard line with an offside penalty moving them up another five yards before the first snap.

They then quickly scored with Bryant Mooney breaking off a 32-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage to instantly give Huntland a 6-0 advantage.

The Bobcats weren’t able to pick up a first down on their first drive with the Hornets forcing a turnover on downs at midfield.

The ensuing possession for the Hornets ended in another rushing touchdown for Mooney, and Nathan Jones scored on the two-point conversion afterward to make it a 14-0 game about three minutes into the contest.

A long kickoff return set up the Bobcats at Huntland’s 34-yard line to start their next drive, but the Hornets again forced a turnover on downs in four plays to get the ball back.

The next two drives ended in turnovers with a Huntland interception being quickly followed by a Flintville fumble which was recovered by Mooney at midfield.

The drive following the fumble resulted in another touchdown for the Hornets as Mooney connected with Charlie Jackson on a touchdown pass on the first play of the second quarter to grow the deficit to 20-0.

The Bobcats were able to then answer back with their first score as a touchdown pass from Flintville made it a 20-6 game with five minutes to go in the first half.

The Bobcats then recovered an onside kick to quickly get the ball back, but their ensuing drive ended in a turnover with Brodie Bradshaw intercepting a pass over the middle of the field for Huntland.

Mooney powered his way into the end zone for his third rushing touchdown of the day a few plays later to put the score at 26-6 in the final minute of the first half.

The Bobcats’ next drive lasted one play as they threw a 50-yard touchdown to cut the deficit back down to 26-12 with 33 seconds to go in the half.

The Hornets added one more touchdown just before halftime with Davis Keith throwing a long touchdown pass to Bradshaw and Adon Bass adding a two-point conversion to push the deficit up to 22 points with 11 seconds left in the second quarter.

They led 34-12 at halftime.

The Bobcats made their way into enemy territory to start the third quarter before the Hornets forced another turnover on downs to get the ball back.

The Hornets then scored their final touchdown of the day on their first offensive drive of the second half with Keith and Mooney connecting on a passing score to give Mooney his fifth overall touchdown in the contest. The touchdown made it a 40-12 game with 1:42 left in the third quarter.

The Hornets began rotating their backups into the game in the fourth quarter as they maintained firm control of the scoreboard.

The Bobcats made two drives into Huntland’s territory in the final period with neither possession resulting in points as the Hornets forced a turnover on downs and recovered a fumble on defense to make the stops.

On the other side of the ball, the Hornets punted the ball away once and had their own turnover on downs in the fourth quarter.

The final drive of the day for the Bobcats resulted in another turnover as Bryson Reynolds recovered a fumble for Huntland’s fourth takeaway of the game.

The Hornets were able to run out the clock from there as they won by 28 points.

With the win, the Hornets improved to 5-2 on the season.

They will next play Tuesday at home against Cornersville Middle School. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.