Howard’s special teams step up to help sluggish offense as Huskies defeat resurgent Rutland 20-13

Howard overcame offensive woes Thursday night to dispatch of crosstown rival Rutland for the seventh straight time, as the Huskies’ special teams talent and the Hurricanes’ penalty problems helped Howard snag a 20-13 victory at Thompson Stadium in Macon.

The game came down to the fourth quarter, as Howard had a 14-13 lead with about seven minutes remaining before embarking on a drive that brought the clock down to three minutes and ended in a rushing touchdown that extended the Huskies’ lead. 

Rutland had a chance to retaliate with two minutes left but could not get a drive going and turned the ball over on downs.

Two of Howard’s touchdowns came as a direct result of special teams. The Huskies opened the game by blocking a punt on Rutland’s first drive that Bralen Jones scooped up an returned for a touchdown, and a 44-yard Ta’Shawn Poole kickoff return set up a touchdown run on the very first play of the second half.

“That was our important emphasis during our bye week. We were terrible in special teams last week and had to spend a lot of time on that, and it improved this week,” Howard head coach Trey Porter. “You take steps in certain areas but want to improve in all areas, but sometimes you take what you can get.”

It was Porter’s offense that needed improving in Thursday’s win, as the Huskies struggled to move the ball for most of the first half and parts of the second. But Howard finally manufactured a long, clock-chewing touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter that helped ice the game.

The drive consisted of 11 plays. The Huskies ran the ball 10 times, and the one passing play was a brilliantly-timed, play-action completion that moved them to the 1-yard line to set up a rushing touchdown for Poole.

“It’s one of those where we always talk about playing complementary football. We couldn’t get a lot of offense going, and we ran about 86 plays last week. We ran something like 40 tonight. It’s one of those where you have to do what’s working and you have to muddy it up to get a win however you can get it,” Porter said. “We just had to put a drive together late in the game.”

The drive was necessary because Rutland — which went 0-10 last year and lost its opener to Bleckley County despite a decent first-half defensive showing two weeks ago — looked revamped on both sides of the ball. The Hurricanes stuffed Howard’s rushing attack with ease on defense and got timely pass plays on offense to make it a great game.

“We always want the W. Looking good and losing, to me it’s not what you want. But we’re right there. If we can fix some of these mistakes that we’re having, we should be alright,” Rutland head coach Anthony Williams said. “If the guys can just get one win, I can see the confidence building, because they fought. I can’t be mad at the effort, they did everything we asked them to do, we just need to minimize mistakes.”

While the Hurricanes remained run-heavy on offense after struggling to pass against Bleckley County, quarterbacks Tyson White and Zamarien Johnson found their footing and combined to throw for 184 yards and a touchdown. Wide receiver Jacob Bates had 78 of those yards — most of them coming on two chunk plays that fueled Rutland’s scoring drives — and scored his first career touchdown.

“That’s a long time coming for him, he’s a senior and that’s his first career touchdown. He has some of the best hands on the team,” Williams said of Bates. “He was excited. When we need a first down, we try to go to him.”

Receivers Jorden Orange and Troy Lester, the latter of whom made an incredible one-handed snag at one point, made key catches as well, while running backs Roosevelt Sampson and Kentavious Spivey were crucial threats on the ground.

But Howard’s timely special teams and back-breaking late touchdown drive were too much for the Hurricanes to overcome. 

Rutland’s problems with presnap penalties — the ‘Canes had 14 penalties total, two of which came on its last-gasp drive with two minutes to play — did little to improve things.

“We just gotta make sure we work all that stuff out in practice. It starts with conditioning, you get tired and you’re not focused, you’re not thinking about the snap count, whatever it is,” Williams said. “It’s fixable, like everything I think we did tonight can probably be fixed. We just gotta make sure these guys stay with it. They’re fighting hard.”

The win was a gutsy one for Howard with the offense slower than expected. Porter said his team was banged up — one star rusher, Julius Ramsey, played with a broken hand and still managed to score an impressive 36-yard touchdown — but figured out a way to win.

The Huskies came into the contest 6-4 against the Hurricanes all-time, with all six of those victories coming consecutively starting in 2014 under then-head coach Barney Hester. Rutland last defeated Howard when the Hurricanes were under head coach George Collins in 2013 and defeated the Huskies 47-14.

Rutland will travel to face Lamar County next week, while Howard begins its region schedule with a home matchup against West Laurens.