Smith kickoff return preserves happy homecoming evening for Hennessey
HOMECOMING ROYALTY – Hennessey’s football homecoming royalty last Friday night were, from left: sophomore attendant Jazzy Bullis and sophomore Kason Copeland, queen candidate Anna Stotts and king candidate Keigen Crites, queen candidate Mailey Scott a
Newkirk thought there was hope for its first win of the year.
Weston Smith took it away.
The sophomore returned a kick 74 yards for a touchdown with 7:56 to play to help seal Hennessey’s 36-28 homecoming win.
The Tigers’ Landon Vap had just hauled in a 77- yard touchdown pass from Clayton Bergman moments earlier and a two-point conversion pulled the visitors with 29-28.
It was part of a 21-0 run in the second half by Newkirk that saw it nearly erase what was a 29-6 lead for the Eagles at halftime.
That lead was built on the arm of Sebastian Gonzalez.
Hennessey’s junior quarterback was 19 of 30 for 321 yards and four touchdowns.
All of those came in the first half.
The first was late in the first quarter as the Eagles saw Gonzalez hit Seth Simunek for a 25-yard score, then run in the two-point conversion for an 8-6 lead.
Early in the second quarter, Gonzalez found Langston Smith for an 11- yard score.
Weston Smith then provided his first big play of the game, a 64-yard scoring reception.
Simunek later caught another 25-yard touchdown pass to give the Eagles a commanding and seemingly comfortable lead.
But Newkirk didn’t go away.
The Tigers got two third-quarter touchdown passes from Bergman to Landon Hey in the third quarter.
That helped set up the big strike to Vap with 8:06 showing on the clock.
However, Smith quickly took the momentum back for the Eagles and the defense held the rest of the game.
Bergman ended his night 14 of 25 for 225 yards.
The Tigers added another 138 on the ground, led by Dalton Osborn’s 90 yards on 25 attempts.
Keigen Crites powered Hennessey’s ground game with 93 yards on 12 carries.
However, the Eagles only had 68 net rushing yards due to lost yardage on sacks. Simunek ended his night with 146 receiving yards on five catches.
Weston Smith totaled 84 yards on his four grabs.
Kevin Trillo added another six catches for 44 yards.
Crites and Juan Castanon had 12 tackles apiece while Trillo, a freshman, ended with nine.
Hennessey evened its District 2A-1 mark at 1-1 and pushed its overall record to 3-2.
Newkirk dropped to 0-5 and 0-2.
The Eagles travel Friday to Blackwell (0-4, 0-2).