Trojans, off to 3-0 start, prepare for road battle with Hickory
HobbsDailyReport.com
BET YA DIDN’T KNOW…
Bandys’ 62-6 win Friday night at Bunker Hill was the third-highest scoring output in varsity football history for the Trojans:
68 – Bandys 68, Beaver Creek 0 at Bandys in 1971 first round of state playoffs
66 – Bandys 66, Newton-Conover 14 in 2003 at Newton-Conover
62 – Bandys 62, Bunker Hill 6 in 2018 at Bunker Hill
62 – Bandys 62, West Lincoln 14 in 1970 at Bandys
58—Bandys 58, West Lincoln 24 in 2001 at Bandys
SOURCE: HobbsDailyReport.com research and files.
CLAREMONT – In one of its highest-scoring football games in school history, visiting Bandys High roughed up nearby rival Bunker Hill 62-6 on Friday night to start the season 3-0.
The Trojans (3-0) scored nine rushing touchdowns and ran for 379 yards to beat the Bears (0-4) for the 20th time in their last 24 games and push their all-time series lead to 34-26-1.
Ethan Howard, Elijah Cooke and Isaiah Talbert each ran for two scores and Lake Hojnacki, Terrell Williams and Hunter Jones each added a rushing TD.
Bandys kicker Ben Joseph came into the game having made 11 straight PATs and missed his last against the Bears to end his streak at 17 in a row.
EANES
The victory gave new head coach Tom Eanes his 150th career win (150-187-1, 30th year). He came from Patton, where his team went 9-4 last season.
The Trojans opened a 35-6 lead through one quarter on Friday night and led 42-6 at the half, and they won without a player gaining 100 yards by rushing, passing or receiving.
Hojnacki had a team-high 63 yards on four carries and Howard gained 47 on three carries to increase his season total (unofficially) to 341 yards on 38 carries with five TDs.
The Trojans limited the Bears to 97 yards, forcing two turnovers, and Bunker Hill had 38 rushing yards.
Howard, who unofficially has 2,576 career rushing yards, opened the scoring with a 7-yard TD run.
Cooke ran 31 yards for a score and Talbert had a 3-yard TD run to give the Trojans a 21-0 lead.
Bunker Hill closed within 21-6 when Isaiah Ramseur caught a 4-yard TD pass from Desmond Anderson.
Undaunted, the Trojans answered with a 52-yard scoring run by Hojnacki and Cooke’s 17-yard TD run to lead 35-6 heading into the second quarter.
Howard ran 32 yards for a TD for a 42-6 lead before Talbert’s 9-yard scoring run expanded the lead to 49-6.
Williams (4 yards) and Jones (14 yards) had rushing TDs in the final quarter for Bandys.
The Trojans threw the ball only five times in Eanes’ multiple offense.
The 62 points scored by Bandys was its most since 2003 when the Trojans won 66-14 at Newton-Conover and was seven points shy of breaking the school record (68-0 over Beaver Creek, first round of state playoffs in 1971 at Bandys).
The Trojans go for a 4-0 start when they play at Hickory on Friday at 7:30 p.m. (they are 1-5 all-time against the Red Tornadoes). Bandys’ first South Fork 2A game is Sept. 21 at home against Maiden.
The Bears will try to avoid a 0-5 start when they play West Wilkes at Bunker Hill on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Bunker Hill’s opener in the Northwestern Foothills 2A is Sept. 21 at defending state 2AA champion Hibriten.
Notes
The 56-point win margin was by far the largest in Trojans-Bears games since 1980 with the previous high in wins by Bandys of 35 points in 1996 (35-0), 1998 (55-20) and 42-7 (42-7) and all of those games were also at Bunker Hill … Friday’s West Wilkes at Bunker Hill game will be only the third game between the two and first at The Hill – they played a state playoff game at West Wilkes in 1980 (West Wilkes 16-14) and a non-league game in 2017 (West Wilkes 47-43) … Eanes has won 12 of his last 16 games… Hickory has won both of its previous home games against Bandys, 25-19 in 2005 and 42-35 in overtime in 2007.