By Tom Waddill
HOUSTON — The final score looked pretty: Huntsville 35, Houston Waltrip 0.
Justin Gilbert’s 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown was exciting, Huntsville’s defense did its job most of the night and sophomore linebacker Bridge Blount capped a thrilling third quarter when he picked off a pass and returned it three yards for a touchdown.
Nearly everything else Friday was ugly. Ugly with a capital U.
Huntsville (1-2) did notch its first win of the season, but the Hornets did so in a game that was marred by penalties and a fourth-quarter fight in which one Waltrip player and an assistant coach were escorted off the field by police officers.
In the end, the teams combined for more penalty yards (309) than total offense (246).
It was that bad.
Fortunately, the Hornets came away winners in their final nondistrict game of the season. They did so by scoring late in the first half, then tacking on 28 points in the third quarter.
Gilbert, who struggled mightily in the first half, hit Mark Wheeler with a 27-yard touchdown pass with 36 seconds left in the second period. Wheeler made a nice Willie Mays-style, over-the-shoulder catch on the pass from Gilbert.
“We got us a score and that gave us the momentum going into halftime,” said Huntsville coach Mitchell Coey, who was still smarting from a lick he took in the brawl that brought coaches and police officers from both sides onto the field. “Our defense kept us in the game in the first half.”
The Hornets began to break the game open on the first play of the second half. Gilbert fielded the third-quarter kickoff on the 8-yard line, patiently waited for his blockers to give him an opening, then burst through the Rams defense. He broke one arm tackle and it was off to the races.
“I knew if I could run it back that would give us some momentum,” said Gilbert, who completed 5-of-9 passes for 59 yards. “Our defense did a good job not letting them get back in the game once we took the lead.”
Huntsville’s defense did a great job, especially in the second half.
Senior Brodrick Hadnot recovered a fumble, then sacked Rams quarterback Zechariah Lemond on consecutive possessions. Using a strong pass rush, the Hornets started winning the field-position battle, which helped Huntsville’s offense put some more points on the board.
Senior tailback Joe Maxey scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 1-yard run. Maxey capped a short three-play, 18-yard touchdown drive with 5:28 left in the third, then after senior free safety Gabe Franklin picked off a pass and ran it to the Rams’ 5-yard line, Maxey scored again from 3 yards out to make it 28-0.
Blount put the finishing touches on the Huntsville scoring spurt when he reached up and snatched a Lemond pass and ran it in with 50 seconds left in the third quarter.
Kicker Martin Juarez went a perfect 4-for-4 on extra-point tries.
“When Gilbert ran that kickoff all the way back, that was sure a momentum changer,” Coey said. “Then our defense kept giving us a short field and our offense did enough to put some points on the board.
“I feel pretty good about this win. Offensively, we were very conservative. We didn’t want to turn the ball over too many times. We wanted to play a field-position game with them — a cat-and-mouse game — because we knew we had too many athletes not to get on track.”
Huntsville, which opens District 18-4A play next week against Caney Creek at Moorhead Stadium in Conroe, netted only 73 yards through the air and 29 more on the ground. The Hornets were hit with 11 penalties for 132 yards.
Waltrip, which fell to 2-2, passed for 144 yards, but the Rams netted negative-35 yards rushing. Waltrip also was penalized 21 times for 177 yards.
The game got out of hand midway through the fourth quarter when Huntsville lined up for a play. Nose tackle Rodney Clovis flattened the Huntsville center before the ball was snapped. A huge fight broke out on the next play when Clovis took a swing at Maxey.
The game was stopped for nearly 15 minutes, but order was finally restored and the rest of the contest was played without any further incidents. The teams did not shake hands afterward, though.
“I thought the officials did a good job controlling things,” Coey said.
