Eagles’ season ends at Kellyville

Kellyville methodically pulled away from Hennessey last Friday to end the Eagles’ season.

The Ponies advanced in the 2A playoffs with a 52-6 home win over HHS.

It put to end a Hennessey season that saw a COVID quarantine, its first win since 2018, its first win streak since 2017 and shed a brighter light on the future.

“We had a good stretch midway through the season,” said second-year head coach Paul Hix.

The Eagles finished 3-6 overall, but got their wins during a four-game stretch.

“We played a physical brand of football on both sides, but we really caught the injury bug and kind of ran out of gas at the end.”

The end came just on the other side of Interstate 44 as Kellyville led 19-0 at halftime, then doubled that by the end of the third.

As usual, Hennessey largely kept it on the ground.

Keigen Crites ran 26 times for 105 yards and Sebastian Gonzalez added 67 more on 19 carries.

That allowed the Eagles to help keep the ball away from Kellyville, but the Ponies were able to capitalize on their possessions.

The Eagles were not, as their only score was a Crites run in the fourth.

Crites will be back next year as will Gonzalez.

Back, too, will be freshman Man Valdez, who led the team with 10 tackles. Fellow freshman Nykolaus Snyder had nine tackles.

In other words, the blocks should be there for more building in 2021.

“We return the majority of our team and feel pretty good about next year,” Hix said.