Ray fires 4 touchdowns in Patriots win
HOMEWOOD — The Homewood High School football team looked good coming out of its bye week, pulling away for a 49-14 Class 6A, Region 5 victory over Huffman on Friday night at Waldrop Stadium.
Homewood (5-1, 3-0 in region), in a dominant outing, keeps pace with Briarwood and Mountain Brook as the only unbeatens in league play. Head coach Ben Berguson and his Patriots will take on the Spartans on Oct. 14 and the Lions the following week.
“At the time, I really didn’t want to take [the bye week] because I thought we were playing so well, but we did have some guys banged up and it gave us time to heal up for a really tough stretch coming up,” said Berguson.
Homewood junior quarterback Woods Ray led the charge on Friday at home, completing 9-of-11 attempts for 134 yards and four touchdowns, three of which went to senior Aron Marsch in the first half.
The duo started with an 8-yard crosser off play action on the second Patriots drive of the evening. Their second score covered 7 yards for a 21-0 advantage and the Ray-to-Marsch combo closed out the first half with a 36-yard shot down the right side, sending Homewood to the break with a 28-point cushion.
“Our offense picked up right where we left off before the open date,” Berguson said. "Woods threw four touchdowns in the first half, we were hitting on all cylinders and this was just a great team win.”
The home team reached the end zone on each of its four first-half possessions, while Huffman (1-6, 0-4) punted three times, gathered 52 yards of offense and went scoreless through the first 24 minutes of play.
After forcing a Huffman punt on the opening drive of the game, the Patriots answered with a five-play touchdown drive, as Ray opened up the scoring with a third down conversion to senior J.C. Daniel, who ran under the high-hanging pitch into the left corner of the end zone.
Homewood went for 333 yards of offense and scored on each of its first seven drives. Marsch pulled in five receptions for 88 yards and three scores. Junior running back Calyb Colbert showed some burst out of the backfield with touchdown runs of 59 and 36 yards in the third quarter. He finished with 101 yards rushing to go with a 63-yard outing from Mondrell Odell, who also scored.
Homewood also showed out on the defensive side, pulling a first-team shutout before the Vikings struck twice against the second unit. The stingy effort was bolstered by a pair of second-half turnovers from Aaron Ford (fumble recovery) and Logan Hall (interception).
Huffman quarterback Mekail Alexander-Johnson was injured after being sacked by Miller Chapman early in the first quarter and would not return to play. He was replaced by wideout Naeem Offord, who completed 4-of-9 passes for 63 yards.
Homewood is set to visit Shades Valley next Friday while the Vikings host Chelsea.