Newton quarterback Tre Hillie continued his hot streak by throwing for four touchdowns and rushing for two more in a 54-13 rout of Choctaw Central at Morgan Field Friday night.
Hillie finished with an efficient 246 yards passing on a 7 of 10 performance with no interceptions. He also added 42 yards on the ground on seven carries.
Tiger head coach Ryan Smith said he was impressed with Hillie’s approach all week.
“We put a lot of dual reads on him just to see if he could get some better pre-snap reads,” Smith said. “He read level three pretty well and because of that, he made some throws. And we’ve got to be very efficient on what we call third-level throws. Sometimes, we get a little greedy and try to stay third level when we’ve got some first-level throws that we need to take.
“The big thing for him is because he’s such a competitor that we try to get him to play smart. Don’t take hits you don’t need to. Don’t do things you don’t need to do.”
While the Tigers (4-0) make a point to start and end each half well, Smith was glad to see his team score on the first drive.
“That’s the first time we’ve done that all season,” Smith said. “But one thing that we have to do is to finish the two-point conversion. If we do that it, it’s a 66-13 game. I know that’s nitpicky, but we have to do that if we want to have success later on in the season.”
That opening-drive touchdown came via Hillie’s 66-yard strike to Javarious Moore. Hillie added another score on an 11-yard touchdown run.
Choctaw Central responded by returning the ensuing kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown.
Sirvares Snow got in on the action with a 6-yard touchdown run. Zackariah Johnson caught the two-point conversion pass from Hillie to give Newton a 20-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The onslaught continued moments into the second quarter as Ran Hardaway caught a 14-yard strike from Hillie to increase the lead to 20 points.
Hillie then hit a third level pass, this time to Qua Irby who took it to the house for the 85-yard touchdown. Snow added the conversion.
Newton appeared headed for trouble near the end of the half as Choctaw forced a fumble, but lineman Jonah Donald picked up the loose ball and rumbled 41 yards into the red zone.
Hillie finished the drive with a 1-yard plunge into the end zone, leaving the halftime score at 40-6.
The first string offense then kept the pedal down as Hillie tossed a 34-yard bomb to Zachary Johnson.
After the Warriors scored a TD late in the third quarter, Newton added its final touchdown on a 37-yard run by Kamren Johnson.
Irby led the team in all-purpose yards with 117 yards (85 receiving and 32 rushing). Kamren Johnson finished with 78 yards on just five carries while Snow had 60 yards on eight carries. Snow and Donald had fumble recoveries while Zackariah Johnson had an interception.
