PREP ROUNDUP: Holly Pond closes season with 48-13 win over Cleveland
Published 4:30 am Saturday, November 2, 2024
Holly Pond ended its season Friday night exactly how coach Will McDaniel hoped it would.
While the Broncos celebrated their 48-13 road win over Cleveland, they also honored and showed appreciation for a senior class playing its final game in Green and White.
“It means a lot. I’ve talked about our seniors going back to the summer at media days, and when anybody asks, I’ve told our guys to go play hard for those guys,” McDaniel said. “Since they were in seventh grade, I’m the sixth different head coach they’ve had. They’ve stayed the course and have really led the team in every way, so it was huge to go out in their last game, get a win and for those guys to perform the way they did.”
Holly Pond (4-6) found its offense early and never took its foot off the gas, having a host of players find the end zone, including seniors Brody Howard, Sawyer Olinger and Zayne Faulkner.
It was Howard and Boston Gibbs who scored rushing touchdowns in the first quarter to give the Broncos an early 12-0 lead. Gibbs added another score before Cleveland got on the board ahead halftime, with Holly Pond leading 20-7 at the break.
In the second half, it was Olinger and Faulkner who scored to extend Holly Pond’s lead to 36-7 in the third quarter. Touchdown passes from Olinger to Gibbs and Gibbs to Cade Allbright in the fourth capped the lopsided win for the Broncos.
The victory also secured Holly Pond’s highest season win total since 2018, which is something McDaniel hopes to build on next year.
“You always hope things like this are a springboard, and that’s what we want it to be,” he said. “We have pretty good numbers at the lower levels, so we really hope to get more kids involved, bring these young kids along. We’re really excited about the future here.”
Oak Grove 57, Hanceville 13
Hunter Black threw a pair of touchdown passes to Drake Bentley (25 and 65 yards, respectively), but it wasn’t enough for the Bulldogs on Friday night.
The Bulldogs finish the season at 1-9.
Brewer 35, West Point 0
The Warriors trailed just 15-0 at halftime before the Patriots pulled away in Friday’s season finale.
West Point finishes its season at 2-8.
