Turnovers help Eagles topple Crescent

The third year of the Paul Hix era at Hennessey already has one thing the first two didn’t.

A win in the season opener.

The Eagles were highly effective in their run game, forced five turnovers and left Crescent last Friday night with a 27-14 victory.

Hennessey ran for 208 yards and averaged 7.2 yards a carry.

Crescent countered with 209 yards and nearly five yards a tote.

“I thought we were two evenly-matched teams,” said Crescent’s J.L. Fisher.

The difference?

Crescent fumbled the ball over to the Eagles five times.

“Those turnovers killed our chances,” Fisher said.

The Eagle passing game, especially early, was also a deciding factor.

“We were able to hit some big throws early and that really opened up our run game,” Hix said.

Junior Sebastian Gonzales was 5 for 10 for 130 yards and threw two firsthalf touchdowns to help turn a six-point deficit into a 20-6 halftime lead.

Crescent’s Tayon Johnson put his team up 6-0 with a 5-yard touchdown run early in the first quarter to cap a 60-yard scoring drive.

Gonzalez found Seth Simunek from 24 yards out on the ensuing drive to tie the game.

After a tug-of-war for much of the rest of the first half, Gonzalez connected with Weston Smith for a 58-yard touchdown with 4:10 to play in the first half.

The Eagles struck again with 50 seconds remaining in the half when Gonzalez scored on a 1-yard run.

The run game took care of the rest.

Senior Keigen Crites chewed up a bulk of the yards as he racked up 137 yards on 20 carries.

Gonzalez added 31 more and sophomore Nykolaus Snyder 40.

Most of those came on a 34-yard scoring scamper with 9:15 to play that sealed the win.

Crescent had closed the gap just seconds into the fourth quarter when Johnson’s 6-yard TD run made it 20-14.

Crescent had four ball carriers run for at least 35 yards.

Johnson and C.J. Wilson finished with 40 on eight carries each.

Tanner Rice, who split time at QB with Kade Varner, led the team with 61 yards on 11 carries.

Varner was 5 of 7 through the air for 52 yards.

Luke Descher had six tackles and Johnson five to lead the defense.

Juan Castanon had a game-high 13 tackles for Hennessey while Crites added 11. Castanon also forced and recovered one of Crescent’s fumbles.