PHOTO BY JEREMY WIGGS
Halls’ Brody Rogers grinds for yardage in the Red Devils’ 36-14 win at Hardin Valley in Week 4 of the high school football season.
Lethgo and Halls spoil Hardin Valley’s Homecoming
By David Klein
The Halls Red Devils spoiled a homecoming game Friday night at Hardin Valley. Red Devils quarterback Amari Lethgo threw for four touchdown passes and ran for another as the Red Devils beat the Hawks 36-14.
The Red Devils got on the board first with a 35-yard touchdown pass from Lethgo to Brody Rogers with 6:13 left in the first quarter. Rogers beat the Hawks’ safety in the left corner for the touchdown.
A little later, a fumbled punt by Hardin Valley set up Halls nicely in Hawks’ territory. Lethgo found Rogers for a third down conversion. On 2nd-and-goal from the Hawks’ 1-yard line, Lethgo took a shotgun snap, faked the handoff to Marcus Moore, then ran around the right side untouched for the touchdown. Halls led 14-0 with 11:55 left in the second quarter.
“All of the linebackers went for the fake handoff so I knew I could just walk in the endzone,” Lethgo said.
Hardin Valley finally got on the scoreboard with a Dylan Umansky pass to Isaac Shelby with 3:43 left in the first half. That cut the lead to 14-7 Halls.
Answering the Hawks’ score, Lethgo passed for his second touchdown to Landon Vest with 49 seconds left in the first half to make it 21-7 Halls and halt the Hawks’ momentum.
To start the second half, Hardin Valley forced a three-and-out and forced Halls to punt from its own territory. The Hawks took advantage of a short field and quarterback Riley Matz threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Michael Stewart Jr. to cut Halls’ lead to 21-14.
“Matz just got back this week,” Hardin Valley Coach Tyler Wynn said, explaining Matz’s prior absences for broken fingers. “(He’s) about three practices in. From a continuity standpoint our kids are working hard. It’s (Matz) his first time under the bright lights,” Wynn added.
Following a successful field goal, Halls recovered an onside kick and had the football 1st-and-10 at the Hawks’ 40-yard line. Lethgo threw a short pass to Drew Ross and he took it down the middle of the Hawks’ defense for 40-yard touchdown. Hardin Valley would block the extra point, but Halls created some distance and opened a 30-14 lead.
Halls tacked on another touchdown, a 3-yard pass from Lethgo to Rogers in the right corner of the end zone to make it 36-14 Halls with 3:23 left in the fourth quarter. Hardin Valley did not have any comebacks in them this night.
“We gave their players a reason to stay in the game because of us,” Halls Coach Brent Hughes said of the game. However, Hughes pointed out the positives from the Red Devils in the fourth quarter. “When we do what we’re supposed to do up front and allow our athletes to be special, as you can tell, special things happen.”
Halls (3-1) hosts Carter Thursday night in a non-district game while Hardin Valley (1-3) plays a district game at Bearden Friday.
