Hawthorne routs Oak Hall

HAWTHORNE — The Hawthorne Hornets cruised to victory on senior night, defeating the Oak Hall Eagles 39-0.

It was all Hawthorne (8-0) from the start, as the fifth-ranked Hornets remained undefeated, winning their seventh game in District 2-1B.

After recovering a fumble on the Eagles’ 24-yard line, the Hornets needed just two plays to score their first touchdown, a 16-yard run by Jeremy Gordon.

The Hornets’ Armond Pittman added the next touchdown, when he caught a 20-yard pass from quarterback Marques Hayes late in the first quarter. Pittman also had 33 yards on the ground off of three carries, and he caught two passes for 50 yards.

DJ Lawrence added two rushing touchdowns, one coming off of a 43-yard run. He led the Hornets in rushing with 146 yards on 13 carries, including a carry for 40 yards.

“We’ve got about six guys that have above average speed,” Hornets coach Ron Pruitt said. “If they can get the corner on you they can go.”

Hayes completed 5-for-11 passes for 71 yards and two interceptions. In the fourth quarter, he added a 16-yard touchdown run which pushed the score to 33-0.

Keeping it in the family, Marqus’ younger brother, Anfrenee, scored the final touchdown on a 5-yard run.

On the other side, the Eagles (2-6) generated very little on offense, with just 75 total yards. They went for it on fourth down six times, succeeding just once, and they gave up six sacks.

But, despite their difficulties, the Eagles’ intercepted two passes. The first came in the second quarter, as the Hayes was under pressure and threw an errant pass to the Eagles’ Dean Sharabi. The second came on a deflected ball which Apurv Suman snagged out of the air.

“Our guys fought hard, and our effort was good,” Eagles coach Scott McDaniel said. “We only turned it over once, and got a couple of turnovers which was a bonus for our guys.”

Also, the Eagles recovered an onside kick at the opening of the second half, but they failed to turn it into points.

The Hornets were plagued by 13 penalties for 115 yards and disappointed their coach.

“The first half, we had a lot of laundry on the field,” Pruitt said. “It was little mistakes that we made that we have to correct and get right.”