Owls tie historic mark with win
Examiner photo by Carter Benton Colin Anderson answered a Hornet score with a huge kickoff return in Anderson-Shiro’s 60-20 win at Hemphill.
Examiner photo by Carter Benton Anderson Shiro’s Jarvis Haynes plunges in for a rushing touchdown in the 60-20 win over Hemphill. The Owls tie their record for most wins in a season at eight with a game remaining.
Examiner photo by Carter Benton
HEMPHILL - The Anderson- Shiro Fighting Owls methodically picked the Hemphill Hornets apart Oct. 27, for a 60-20 win. The dominant win secured a record tying eighth regular season victory and secured a solid playoff berth with one regular season game remaining.
The Owls (8-1, 4-1) shut down a potent Hornet team that was hoping to derail the Owl’s record book season and throw a wrench into the playoff picture.
Play got off to a rocky start for the Owls with the Hornets returning the opening kickoff 80-plus yards for a touchdown. Anderson- Shiro came out following the special teams mistake, put their head down and went to work. Two offensive plays into the Owls’ first possession, Connor Daley connected with Pierce Goodwin for a 6-yard touchdown. Goodwin also caught the conversion to tie the game 8-8.
Jarvis Haynes continued his dominant senior campaign with a 35-yard touchdown run at the 6:57 mark of the first quarter. Just a few plays later, Kagan Stephens continued his brilliant breakout season with a 45-yard pick-six. Haynes again got the call at the 3:40 mark of quarter one with a 3-yard plunge up the middle. He also ran in the conversion. Before the Hornet faithful could blink, the Owls put 30 unanswered points on the board to round out the opening quarter.
Anderson-Shiro wasn’t done yet. Senior captain Jordan Coronado intercepted a Hornet pass and scampered 35 yards through the offense for the final first half score. Haynes ran in the conversion pushing the lead to 38-8 at halftime.
Daley came out firing in the second half hitting Stephens for a 40-yard touchdown pass then found Goodwin for the conversion.
The Hornets stung back with a score late in the third quarter to pull within 46-14. Colin Anderson answered with a great kickoff return to get the Owls back in business quickly. Daley connected with Coronado for a 14-yard score a few plays later. Haynes punched in the conversion extending the lead 54-14. Coronado had two scores and over 10 tackles capping his stellar night.
Ta’Colton Calhoun put any glimmer of hope for the Hornets to rest in fourth quarter. He rumbled downfield for Owls final score. Hemphill scored late finalizing the score 60-22.
Owl Head Coach Brad Hodges was super proud of his team. “It takes a lot of heart and discipline to travel this far and bring the intensity and desire we showed tonight,” he explained. “We had a lot of support from our cheer team, student body and fans. I cannot thank the Owl Family enough for their support this far from home. We brought a great crowd to East Texas to see a huge win against a quality district opponent.”
This week, the Owls host the Trinity Tigers (0-9, 0-5) in a final district matchup before the playoffs. When asked about the game, many of the player and coaches used the words “huge” and “big” to describe it.
The Owls will go for the record breaking ninth regular season win Nov. 3, with kickoff slated for 7 p.m. The school expects a large crowd as Trinity has historically been one of their biggest rivalries and with the record-breaking win on the line. The Owls secured second place in the district and await results out of East Texas to determine their playoff pairing.
As always, if you cannot be at Fighting Owl Stadium, you can follow along for live scoring updates and short videos on Facebook at the Navasota Examiner’s Sports Page.