The Newton Tigers went to winless Hazlehurst shorthanded on Friday night due to injuries.
The Indians had no mercy as they rolled out to a 44-0 lead and went on to take a 51-22 win over Tigers.
Newton falls to 0-6 on the season and will host Union on Friday night to open Division 5-2A play.
It was another tough loss for second-year coach Zach Grady.
“We had five starters out on defense and we were think to start with,” Grady said. “They just ran the ball down our throats for four straight quarters. I hope we can get some of them back this week. When you are young and don’t have a lot of depth, you can’t really afford to have five starters out. It was just a bad night. But the kids are still playing hard and that’s all you can ask.”
Hazlehurst used a steady running game as they scored 19 points in the first quarter and 12 in the second to lead 31-0 at the half.
The Indians got the ball to start the third quarter and drove down the field, consuming almost eight minutes of close to make the score 38-0.
“Once they got the lead and started driving the ball on us, it was over,” Grady said. “They got the ball to open the third quarter and it was four minutes left before we got it back. We just didn’t have the ball that much and when we did, we left some points on the field. I thought we moved the ball up and down the field, we just didn’t capitalize like we needed to.”
The Tigers got second-half touchdown passes from Jaleel Bolton, Lawrence Morris and Tyshun Evans, all from freshman quarterback Tyreke Snow.
“We had three drives where we got inside the 10 and didn’t score,” Grady said. “You score there and the score looks a lot different. Tyreke had a decent game and is getting better. He is still making freshman mistakes and that is going to happen. I thought we played better on offense, we just didn’t score in the red zone like we should have to keep the game closer.”
Newton had 246 yards passing as Snow was 17-of-27 for three TDs and one interception. Snow also had 15 carries for 82 yards. Evans had seven catches for 78 yards while Kezerrian Wash had three catches for 50 yards.
