Hoquiam started league play with their most dominant win of the season as the Grizzlies shutout Tenino for a 62-0 road victory on Friday.
Tenino (2-2, 0-1 Evergreen 1A) came into the game shorthanded, with starting quarterback Aiden Wright sidelined with an injury. Freshman Kysen Knox was under center and was faced with the tough task of handling Hoquiam’s defense.
The Grizzlies (4-1, 1-0) forced a three-and-out on a Tenino opening drive that included two incomplete passes, allowing Hoquiam to get to work on the ground.
Hoquiam’s first drive concluded with a goal line rushing touchdown from Matt Brown on a drive that was set up by long run from Malaki Eaton.
Hoquiam head coach Jeremy McMillan was pleased with his team’s execution for the most part, but noticed a few things that needed to be tightened up.
“Defensively, we started pretty good and offensively, we got down the field and got it in,” he said. “We stuck with the gameplan and the kids executed pretty well. We just have to clean up the little mistakes, like pad level.”
Hoquiam’s Matt Brown, right, and Junior Ensminger team up for a tackle on Tenino’s Dylan Spicer in the second quarter on Friday. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
Eaton found the endzone himself on the next possession with a 18-yard touchdown run at 3:37 in the first quarter to push the Grizzlies’ lead to 14-0.
Hoquiam got on the board one more time before the end of the quarter with a 26-yard touchdown pass from Dane McMillan to Cayden Kempf to give the Grizzlies a 21-0 lead.
The game continued in the same fashion in the second quarter, with Brown picking up the next two rushing touchdowns in the second quarter. McMillan also got in on the scoring with a 6-yard run pushed the margin to 42-0 by halftime.
Brown accounted for three of the game’s seven touchdowns and gave credit to his brother and the rest of the blockers up front for creating holes all game long.
“The blocking tonight was pretty awesome,” he said. “Having my brother (Jon Brown) back, who is like 340 pounds, felt great. They’re pretty physical up front and I’ll praise them for that.”
Hoquiam added two more touchdowns in the third quarter and put in most of its second stringers and junior varsity players for the bulk of the fourth quarter.
Every player on the Grizzlies sideline got to play at least one snap.
The Grizzlies didn’t have the luxury of resting starters last week as injuries forced them to bring a shortened roster to Vancouver for its loss against La Center.
Coach McMillan said his team should start to pick up more steam as starters return to the lineup.
“We were shorthanded and went down to La Center with 25 kids, so we’re getting some of that depth back. Hopefully, we’ll get Ben (Estes) back next week,” he said.
Eaton, who saw limited action in the second half, sustained a hand injury in the third quarter. The severity of the injury is yet to be determined, but Coach McMillan doesn’t expect the senior running back to miss any playing time.
Hoquiam will take on Elma next week in what will be a pivotal matchup in terms of the league standings. Elma is coming off of a dominant win of their own, as the Eagles beat RA Long 62-7 on Friday.
Matt Brown said the team is feeling good headed into next week as its health continues to improve.
“We’re really confident about the (Elma) game. We lost Ben (Estes), but he just has to ice so it shouldn’t be that bad,” he said. “We’re getting most of our players back, so we’re pretty confident.”
Tenino 0 0 0 0 – 0
Hoquiam 21 21 13 0 – 62
Leading Rusher: Hoquiam — Eaton (13-160, TD)
Leading Passer: Hoquiam – Dane McMillan (5-7, 130, TD)
Leading Receiver: Hoquiam – Kyle Larsen (1-43, TD)
