Big plays bail out Hornets in season-opening thriller

Hillcrest Pregame Prayer 250x187 Big plays bail out Hornets in season opening thriller

Michael McShane, Dorial Green-Beckham and Donovan Mathis take a moment before Hillcrest's season opener with Seneca.

It didn’t take long to get broken into the 2010 football campaign. It was a crazy fourth quarter on the Hill to get things started. That’s for sure. Much of the talk from Hillcrest‘s wild win over Seneca, 20-15, will be about Dorial Green-Beckham’s 66-yard game-winning catch-and-run. And rightfully so. It’s a big moment at home on opening night against a tough Indians club. There’s quite a bit to take from the contest other than excitement though, so the Hornets should celebrate lightly. If it weren’t for Green-Beckham’s big run and a 90-yard haul by Jeremy Coleman, Hillcrest wouldn’t have been celebrating at all. But the big plays were made, and in the end it’s all about the final score. Heck, DGB’s best play was ruled incomplete (he made a catch and touched endzone dirt with both tiptoes – I wouldn’t bring it up if I didn’t catch the play on video, check out his interview with highlights below to see for yourself). With that said, here’s some food for thought, bullet-point style:

* A lot of the talk heading into the season was the play of Hillcrest’s junior quarterback Matt Futrell. Futrell was admittedly shaky throughout, he missed several reads and had some trouble delivering the ball on target at times. His long ball wasn’t accurate, but the his short-to-intermediate throws were on point. At one point in the game, it felt like a bad sequence in Madden when you keep trying to force the ball to a certain target (DGB was thrown at 17 times) – two seemingly forced throws resulted in interceptions. In time, Futrell will start to figure out those reads. Certainly, this won’t be the same air attack you saw from the Hornets last year, with Green-Beckham coasting under long balls, but a lot more hitch routes and letting his weapons make plays with their feet. While he ended up with nearly 300 yards passing, if you remove the two big gains, his numbers look a little different (With: 12-for-32, 281 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT; Without: 10-for-30, 125 yards, 2 INT). As the game wore on, Futrell began to look more comfortable in the pocket.

* Jeremy Coleman could become a quiet star. Well, maybe not silently, if he keeps putting up numbers like he did on Friday. A lot of defensive backs got a lot of playing time for Seneca, as the Indians put five and six DBs on the field at a time. And most of them were on Green-Beckham’s side of the field. This should make Coleman one of the most dangerous weapons in the area. He pulled in five catches and racked up 166 yards, including the 90-yard haul. His loud numbers were softened by the big game-winner from DGB, but keep an eye out for this speedy receiver. Junior running back Donovan Mathis has quite a bit of shake out of the backfield as well and is a big gain threat.

* Hillcrest wasn’t able to sustain many drives. The Hornets had three drives of more than 30 yards that lasted longer than a single play – Coleman’s scamper was also on the first play of the drive.
Hillcrest drives:

10 plays, 25 yards, 3 minutes, Result: Turnover on Downs

4 plays, 17 yards, 1 minute, Result: Punt

9 plays, 34 yards, 3 minutes, Result: TD

4 plays, -8 yards, 1 minute, Result: Turnover on Downs

7 plays, 41 yards, 1 minute, Result: Interception

9 plays, 21 yards, 4 minutes, Result: Turnover on Downs

3 plays, 0 yards, 27 seconds, Result: Punt

3 plays, 2 yards, 40 seconds, Result: Punt

1 play, 90 yards, 15 seconds, Result: TD

3 plays, 4 yards, 1 1/2 minutes, Result: Interception

1 play, 66 yards, 12 seconds, Result: TD

In short, Seneca’s few defensive mistakes were costly, but the Indians generally kept the Hornets in check.

* The answer could be both, but it seems that either Seneca senior Allen Frost is primed for a monster season or Hillcrest’s run defense is in big, big trouble. Frost is a burly back with a little bit of shiftiness, but doesn’t have scary breakaway speed. Still, he burned the Hornets for 213 yards on 34 carries. Seneca’s offensive line was the best unit in the trenches and Frost had seams for days. Until the Indians were desperate, late in the fourth quarter, they didn’t run a single play in a formation other than the Power-I. Hillcrest’s run blitz wasn’t effective, either, as Frost broke three long gains – including a 38-yard touchdown rumble – on counter plays against it. The Indians dominance in the rushing attack gave them about a 13-minute advantage in time of possession – yes, that’s more than an entire quarter.

* Seneca could be a team on the rise, though very one-sided. Trailing 14-7 with 7:25 to play, the Indians forced a turnover and trudged down field on a masterful 12-play, 6 and-a-half minute drive, with just a single pass play (again, all in the same formation – only varying between twin and split receivers). Quarterback Jacob Rhoades sneaked in from a yard out to pull to 14-13, before Frost dove between his left guard and tackle to convert a 2-point try. The Indians were sound defensively (you can’t blame them too much for misses on Green-Beckham and Coleman), especially considering they probably won’t play too much 3-2-6 the rest of the year.

* Reportedly scouts from the University of Miami, and a few other schools were on hand to check out Green-Beckham.