BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — No. 3 Auburn High School was stunned by an offensive onslaught from Hewitt-Trussville High School, falling 56-42 in a weather-delayed home opener at Duck Samford Stadium on Aug. 21.
The Huskies’ (1-0) 56 points tied for the most points the Tigers (0-1) have allowed in a single game in school history. The only other time the Tigers allowed as many points was a 56-20 playoff loss to Daphne High School on Nov. 7, 2003.
Cason Myers went 19-for-27 for 288 yards and a touchdown while adding 72 rushing yards and two TDs on 18 carries. Ja’Quez Johnson caught six passes for 115 yards and a TD, and Elijah Scott had seven total tackles and three tackles for loss for Auburn.
Jack Floyd almost single-handedly terrorized Auburn for Hewitt-Trussville. The Huskies’ sophomore quarterback finished 23-for-27 for 338 yards, three TDs and an interception, and rushed 19 times for 164 yards and four TDs.
In a game where Auburn had four turnovers and some uncharacteristic mistakes, head coach Keith Etheredge took the blame and vowed his team would work to correct everything it finds after watching film.
“We didn’t play great tonight, and that’s on me,” Etheredge said. “This is the opening game and we should be crisp. We talked about [having] no pre-snap penalties, and our receivers jumped offsides twice. There’s no excuse for a receiver to jump offsides. They should be looking at the ball, not listening to anything, and go on ball movement. We’ve got to fix those little things to get better.”
It’s a familiar spot for the Tigers, which lost 42-14 to Vestavia Hills High School in the second game of the season last year. Etheredge said he hoped the loss would serve as a wake-up call and that he could get several injured defensive players back sooner rather than later.
“It can be good, especially early in the season, but things don’t get any easier for us,” Etheredge said. “This schedule’s brutal. We’ve got to get healthy, because we lost about four guys tonight who were on the sideline not playing. A lot of that’s on me because I didn’t want to get too physical at practice simply because I worry about depth at certain positions. Luckily, we got banged up at some positions where we have a little bit of depth, but when you lose two corners, that makes it really tough.”
Hewitt-Trussville struck first and struck fast. On the game’s opening possession, Floyd connected with Jackson Martin on a 68-yard pass down to the Auburn 9 yard line, then scored his first rushing TD of the evening from 7 yards out.
Floyd added a second 7-yard rushing touchdown to make it 14-0 less than five minutes into the first quarter before Auburn found its footing. The Tigers finally answered with Myers’ first rushing score, but a two-point try failed and left Auburn chasing the game with a 14-6 scoreline.
Despite the deficit, Auburn kept swinging. After Floyd hit Martin on a 31-yard TD pass that pushed the lead to 21-6, the Tigers responded with a touchdown pass from Myers to Johnson and a successful two-point conversion to make the score 21-14 after one quarter.
Auburn even forced and recovered a Hewitt-Trussville fumble at the Huskies’ 30 yard line in the closing seconds of the period, but failed to turn the takeaway into points.
The Tigers finally pulled even early in the second quarter. A 7-yard rushing TD by Johnson and the extra point knotted the game at 21, which proved to be the closest Auburn would get to Hewitt-Trussville on the night.
That was where the game turned. Floyd broke free on a 17-yard scoring run to put the Huskies back in front, and then the weather intervened: officials halted play midway through the second quarter for a delay that stretched beyond an hour.
When the game resumed, the Huskies almost immediately landed a massive blow on defense. Harrison Malone stepped in front of an Auburn pass and returned it 52 yards for a touchdown and a 35-21 lead with 6:38 left before halftime.
Auburn refused to fold, responding with a 4-yard rushing TD from Myers to get back within 35-28 just two minutes before halftime. But Floyd’s third touchdown pass, a 40-yarder to Daniel Williams with less than 30 left before the break, sent Hewitt-Trussville into halftime ahead 42-28.
If the Tigers were going to complete a comeback, the third quarter offered their opening.
Auburn’s defense held the Huskies off the scoreboard for the only time all night, getting plenty of help from Hewitt-Trussville itself. The Huskies drove inside the Auburn 20 yard line twice and came away with nothing both times: once on an interception by DeMarcus Van Dyke Jr. and once on a fumble Wakefield Wages recovered at the Tigers’ own 10 yard line.
A 4-yard TD plunge by Jeremiah Owens, which was aided by several gorgeous throws from Myers, trimmed Hewitt-Trussville’s lead to 42-35 with 1:38 left in the third quarter, and Auburn headed to the fourth quarter down by a single score with every reason to believe.
However, the final period belonged to Floyd and the Huskies.
After ripping off a long run to the Auburn 35 yard line, Floyd threw a 30-yard touchdown to D.J. Hall two plays later to make it 49-35. Braswell then picked off another Tigers pass, and Floyd capped his enormous night with a 4-yard touchdown run and a 56-35 lead with 3:34 left to play.
Owens added a powerful 11-yard rushing TD to close the scoring at 56-42 with less than two minutes to play.
Auburn will travel to Fort Walton Beach, Florida, to face Choctawhatchee High School on Friday, Aug. 28. The Indians are coming off a 15-13 loss to Mosley High School.
