HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Trojans’ Howard makes good on boast to his mom

Ethan Howard (32) ran for 220 yards on Friday night, scoring three times, as Bandys High beat visiting Franklin 28-14 in the first round of the state 2AA football playoffs. It was a goal Howard set for himself many years ago and he reached it with his second straight game with more than 200 rushing yards./MICHELLE THOMPSON PHOTO

On trips home from youth practice, he always

said he would be Bandys’ all-time rushing leader

BET YA DIDN’T KNOW…
State football playoff victories for Bandys High, by head coaches:
Coach                 Appearances     Record
Dick Foster                      3                   3-3
Tony Paroli                      2                  0-2
Randy Lowman             16                 31-16
Trent Lowman                2                 0-2
Tom Eanes                       1                  1-0
TOTALS                         24               35-23
SOURCE: Bandys High and HobbsDailyReport.com research and files

By CHRIS HOBBS

HobbsDailyReport.com

CATAWBA – Ethan Howard can relate to what a young boy – or boys – watching him make football history on Friday night at Bandys High’s Butler Stadium might be thinking.

Howard, a 5-foot-10, 240-pound senior running back, ran for 220 yards in a 28-14 first-round state 2AA playoff victory over visiting Franklin on the Randy Lowman Field turf to fulfill in grand fashion a promise he made to himself.

When Howard broke a 41-yard run for a third-quarter, go-ahead TD with one of his typical you’re-going-to-remember-me runs by breaking tackles and then speeding away from defenders, he became the all-time leading rusher in Bandys football history with 4,220 yards.

It came with the two guys who previously held the record – Chris Douglas (3,261) and Chris Spade (4,064) – in the stands, former stars etched in Howard’s memory since he was an aspiring Trojans star as a fifth- and sixth-grader playing youth football for Balls Creek Optimist.

As his mom would pick him up from practice and make the drive home — going past Butler Stadium — Howard said he told her what he would someday accomplish.

“It (the record) means a lot to me,” Howard said after his 46th varsity game for Bandys. “It was a dream of mine. It (the dream) was very emotional.

“I’d tell her every time we passed by the school,” that he’d end up as the Trojans’ all-time leading rusher.

Until Friday night, he’d never met Douglas or Spade. By his freshman year at Bandys, he had watched film of both stars – Howard loves watching film – and was determined he would pass their rushing totals.

Spade (primarily a speedster who’d rather outrun than hit a defender) passed Douglas, whose God-given physical skills allowed him to outrun or run over defenders, in 2004. Spade eclipsed Douglas’ 3,261 yards that year and finished with 4,064.

Howard was added to the Bandys varsity roster as a freshman in 2015 and got a modest 13 carries and gained 117 yards. As a sophomore, he added 125 carries for 720 yards to head into his junior season with just 827 yards.

But then-Trojans head coach Trent Lowman, who had seen or played on teams with most of the Trojans’ best runners, mentioned prior to the 2017 season that he thought Howard had a chance to become Bandys’ No. 1 all-time rusher.

Lowman liked the way Howard ran – hard and even harder with defenders on his back and churning forward until those defenders bounced off of Howard, gave up or took a long ride.

“He’s got a little more speed (than is often noticed),” said current Bandys head coach Tom Eanes. “He’s got a unique running style that when you come to hit him… you’re trying to stop him and you go to hit him and those tree trunks (thick legs) take over.”

Howard says he doesn’t need his offensive linemen to hold sustained blocks, just long enough to let him hit a hole and get those legs in motion.

Even when Howard lines up behind the guys he calls his “brothers” – Aaron Johnson and Anthony Bisulca on the left, Cole Howard at center, Nate Mirman and Nash Shook on the right, plus Wayne Carroll and Kaleb Nicholson – and everyone in the stadium knows who will get the handoff, more times than not Howard eats up yardage.

“I couldn’t do it without them,” Howard said. “And it always helps when you can get to the third level (of the defense) and you’re not getting touched.”

When Howard got the ball for the third time in the second half of a game tied 14-all at the half on Friday night, he ate up those 41 yards to the end zone as rapidly as Pac-Man, the once popular video game that burst onto the scene two decades before he was born.

He said he loves the moments in a football game when something has to happen if the Trojans – who are 11-1 and at home Friday night at 7:30 p.m. against West Stokes (11-1) in the second round — want to win.

“I love pressure,” Howard said “There’s a time to step up and be a leader and show what we’ve got. I love that moment.”

Chris Spade, who in 2004 became Bandys High’s all-time leading rusher, talks with this year’s team prior to kickoff on Friday night against Franklin./MICHELLE THOMPSON PHOTO

That Douglas and Spade came to see him break the school rushing record was very humbling.

Spade, who averaged 126.5 yards and 5.96 yards per carry in nine career postseason games, visited with Howard and the Trojans before they battled Franklin.

Prior to Friday, the current Bandys players had played in only one state playoff game, and Howard said they felt the intensity of the moment that Spade reminded them about.

Eanes said he didn’t hesitate to say yes when Spade, who had not revisited Bandys in 14 years, reached out during the week and asked if he could meet Howard and speak to the team before kickoff.

“That speaks to the community that they (Douglas and Spade) would come back,” Eanes said. “For (Spade) to talk to them and take the time to come back is very special…

“He had chills running up and down my spine (during the talk). He sounded exactly the way he played in the way he talked to the kids.”

Howard, already pumped because the chance to do what he told his mom he someday would had arrived, was – to say the least – fired up.

“I was ready to go,” Howard said. “I was ready for war.”

Notes

Bandys High’s Lake Hojnacki ran for 108 yards in Friday’s playoff victory against Franklin, becoming the first Trojans quarterback documented to have rushed for 1,000 yards in a season./MICHELLE THOMPSON PHOTO

Bandys quarterback Lake Hojnacki ran for 108 yards on 10 carries, clearing 1,000 on a 63-yard TD run for the Trojans’ first score on Friday night … In statistics dating back to 1995, Hojnacki is the first Bandys QB to rush for 1,000 yards, and he is believed to be the first QB in school history with that many rushing yards (stats aren’t available from 1959 through 1976) … Bandys had four interceptions on Friday, two by Josh Williams and one each by Chase Clanton and Christian Sigmon… Bandys had 18 penalties for 173 yards that included six holding calls, six illegal procedure calls and two personal fouls … The Trojans improved to 35-23 in postseason games and 21-4 in Butler Stadium; they have won 12 of their last 14 home playoff games (lost to R-S Central in 2014, to Newton-Conover in 2009)… Bandys has played West Stokes once before in its 24 postseason appearances, winning a first-round game in 2004 at Bandys 37-0 when Spade ran for 69 yards and one TD.

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