Big-play defense pushes Eagles past Perry

It appears Hennessey’s trajectory continues to point in the right direction.

The Eagles grabbed their third win of the season and evened their District 2A-1 mark last Friday with a 21-14 win against Perry.

The victory on homecoming night came against a team that beat the Eagles by three touchdowns last season.

Hennessey gave up 34 points in 2021, but this year’s defense sacked the Maroons seven times, forced three turnovers and two more turnovers on downs.

Perhaps the biggest play came with about 2 minutes remaining when Seth Simunek picked off Jaxson Cunningham.

One fourth down conversion later and the Eagles were in victory formation.

Though the district season is still in its infancy, the Eagles sit tied for fourth with Perry at 1-1, but own the tie-breaker.

There were several unknowns going into the week as starting quarterback Titan Hix was forced out of last week’s loss with a knee injury.

Hennessey led Oklahoma Christian School 15-14 at halftime. The Hix injury happened early in the third as the Eagles were outscored 21-0 in the second half.

Tests on the knee early in the week fortunately revealed no tears.

Instead, it was determined Hix “only” had a sprain coupled with a dislocated knee cap.

“He got better as the week progressed,” said HHS head coach Paul Hix, also Titan’s dad.

“He was rusty from not practicing, but came in after the first couple of drives and gave us a lift.”

That lift came at 9:15 of the second quarter when his 3-yard touchdown run capped a 10-play drive and put the Eagles up 6-0.

They made it 14-0 with 1:43 left in the half when Hix found Simunek for a 60-yard touchdown.

The lead was then 21-0 after a 16-yard Simunek- Hix connection with 5:13 left in the third.

Simunek caught four passes in all and they covered 124 yards.

Hix finished 13 of 29 for 161 passing yards.

The Eagles were also able to add some punch on the ground.

Hix carried it 20 times for 73 yards.

Zack Tillman added 41 and Sebastian Gonzalez 22 yards as the Eagles rushed for 179 as a team and averaged 4.3 per carry.

Perry never found consistent success on the ground as 25 attempts netted just 57 yards.

Cunningham did throw for 188, but was under constant pressure.

Jessin Hardin recorded three sacks while Zack Tillman and Cam Griffin added two apiece.

Gonzalez added two more tackles for loss while Griffin had three.

Brandon Valles led the team with 11 tackles.

Simunek, Hardin, Mauricio Valles, Jakob Johns and Griffin had seven apiece.

Hennessey travels to Chisholm this Friday. The Longhorns are 0-5 overall.