Opening Night-mare

It was not your everyday kick return. This was a weaving, churning and punishing sprint.

When Hanford West running back William Stanton fielded the ball with just less than two minutes in the first half, the game was close. Ninety-five yards and six points later, it took on the feel of a rout.

That feeling didn't let up, as the Huskies handed the Granite Hills Grizzlies a 21-6 opening-night defeat at Jacob Rankin Stadium, Friday night.

"The kickoff they returned for a touchdown broke our momentum," Granite Hills coach Gary Stoddard said. "That's the one play that really caused us problems. That broke our back in the second quarter."

Instead of blazing through a wide-open hole to daylight, Stanton's return took much longer. The junior running back shook off tackles in the middle of the field to create a lane, had a wall of blockers in front of him at midfield and was able to score after his teammates pancaked two Grizzlies onto the grass.

That made it 14-6 at the tail end of the first half. The second half seemed like an hour-long version of that play.

Stanton, who was Vontrell Love's backup (Love was injured in the first half), and senior Chez Upkins spent the entire half pounding through Granite's exhausted defense. The backs sprinted through holes their offensive line created and made new ones by plowing through defenders. Upkins punctuated an all-running-play opening drive in the second half with a four-yard score. 

Stoddard saw his team's tackling issues get exposed by the Huskies' one-trick offense.

"We saw a lot of glaring problems out there," he said. "We knew we weren't a very good tackling football team and that was visualized. I hope before this season's over, we can become a good tackling football team."

Attempting less than 10 passes all game, Hanford West, who lined up exclusively in the double wing formation, executed their thin playbook to perfection.

"That is their playbook," Stoddard said. "We used to run that offense on our JV level here and we knew the plays. There was no mystery. On the edges, we were just a little wide and we weren't able to stand up to that offense. It's a good offense, boring, but good."

Granite's offense failed to muster much despite four Hanford West turnovers. Kicker Julian Espino drilled two first-half field goals, but the offense failed to get into the red zone after that. Quarterback Nathan Cordova spent much of the second half on his back as a result of the Huskies' swarming defense, which limited the Grizzlies to just two pass completions.

"Very disappointed about our offense," Stoddard said. "The passing game just killed us. We couldn't get in any kind of offensive rhythm."

Both completions were screen passes to running back A.J. Castillo, who also found little breathing room Friday night.

Senior Sammy Salinas said the offense's lack of aggressiveness were the main reason for the struggles.

"The holes were there, but we just lacked intensity; lacked hitting," Salinas said. "They out-hit us."