By Matt Tasler/sports@trcle.com
HEWITT — Cleburne received a rude awakening Friday night at Panther Stadium as Hewitt Midway blanked the Yellow Jackets 43-0 in the District 16-4A opener.
Midway running back John Hubert rushed for 203 yards on 19 carries, scoring three touchdowns in the first half as the Panthers jumped out to a 33-0 advantage.
“They just beat us off the ball, it was that simple,” Cleburne head coach Phil Young said. “They controlled the line of scrimmage tonight and we didn’t. The last three weeks we controlled it and tonight they did. They came off and hit us in the mouth and we didn’t make the blocks we needed to. The protection wasn’t the best in the world. The running backs didn’t run as hard as we needed them to, in the second half, at times we did alright.
“They played a good game. It didn’t go good for us tonight and we’ll just move on. We’ve got to forget about this one. We’ve had three good games and one bad game. The district race is a long race, and we’ve got to get ready for next week.”
The Jackets opened the season with consecutive victories over South Hills, Granbury and Western Hills, in which the Jackets outscored their opponents 140-7.
On Friday night, the Panthers got the scoring under way midway through the first period, when Hubert scored on a 43-yard run. The extra point attempt failed, leaving Midway with a 6-0 lead with 6:13 to play in the first quarter.
The Jackets were unable to move the ball against the Midway defense and the Panthers drove down the field again.
Quarterback Corey Holmes capped Midway’s second scoring drive of the quarter with a 2-yard run, as the Panthers took a 12-0 lead with 52 seconds left after another missed extra point.
A short Cleburne punt gave the Panthers the ball at the Jackets’ 43 and Hubert scored his second touchdown of the half on a 31-yard scamper a couple of plays later to make it 19-0 after Scott Newberry kicked the extra point with 10:06 remaining in the first half.
Cleburne turned the ball over on a fumbled snap and Hubert scored on an 11-yard run with 9:02 left in the half to make it 26-0.
Holmes completed a 29-yard scoring pass to Todd Glaesmann with 6:48 to play in the second quarter to stretch the advantage to 33-0 at the break.
On Midway’s second possession of the third period, the Panthers drove 73 yards for another score, with Holmes finding Glaesmann on a 25-yard scoring pass to make it 40-0 with 6:26 showing on the clock.
Newberry kicked a 43-yard field goal with 10:15 remaining in the contest to round out the scoring.
The Panthers finished with 265 rushing yards on 37 carries and Holmes completed 6-of-10 passes for 126 yards through the air.
Glaesmannhad four receptions in the contest for 109 yards and also completed 1-of-6 passes for eight yards as the backup quarterback.
The Jackets were limited to 97 total yards of offense, with Micah McCoy leading the way with 28 rushing yards. Cody Hicks gained 10 yards on a pair of carries, while Robert White finished with six carries for nine yards.
Quarterback Ty Taylor completed 6-of-19 passes for 56 yards, but threw three interceptions. Trace Turner was the only Jacket receiver to catch more than one pass, finishing with two catches for 19 yards.
“I thought we had a great week of practice,” Young said. “I thought the plan was good and we had a great week of practice. You never can tell when things start going bad. If we could have gotten it across the other end of the field early and made them go a little distance, it might have changed things, but I don’t know. Our kids didn’t give up.
“They keep fighting because they love the Yellow Jackets. They love Cleburne. We’ve just got to get ready for Midlothian.”
Cleburne (3-1, 0-1) looks to even its district record against Midlothian at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
