SARCOXIE –– One will juke you.
The other will plow you over.
And both have the speed to run away from you.
Houston opened its 2018 season Friday by unleashing an impressive 1-2 punch of running backs Paydon Dixon and Daniel Hutcheson. The duo both rushed for well over 100 yards and backed by the Tigers’ first shutout in six seasons, HHS blanked Sarcoxie 18-0 on the road.
Coach Eric Sloan didn’t go deep into his playbook. He didn’t have to. Handing it off to Nos. 11 and 14 worked just fine.
Dixon, who has been hampered by hamstring injuries that kept him sidelined most of the preseason, looked like his healthy and explosive self. He broke loose for a 20-yard gain on his first carry and finished with 20 rushes for 124 yards.
“In my head I wasn’t going to do that to him. I wanted to keep him under 20 carries,” Sloan said. “But by the second quarter he was pounding his chest a little bit and saying, “I feel great. Keep handing me the football.’ Pretty gutsy performance from a guy who hasn’t been able to practice a whole lot.”
He was complimented by Hutcheson, who impressed in his first varsity start on the offensive side. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound sophomore carried the ball 14 times for a game-high 132 yards and two touchdowns.
Not bad for a 15-year-old.
“He’s a man. He’s a freak,” Sloan said. “A lot of natural ability, strong and he works hard. He ran like a man. He put his head and shoulders down and ran through people.”
HHS won its opening game for the first time since 2015 –– the debut for Sloan, now in his fourth season –– and shut out an opponent for the first time since Sept. 7, 2012. The Tigers blanked Cuba, who they face in this Friday’s home opener, 6-0 in that matchup.
The Tigers gained 305 yards on 61 plays, including 283 rushing yards. They overcame eight penalties and six fumbles –– two that they lost.
Houston’s defense held Sarcoxie’s tripleoption offense to 2.8 yards per carry and just 177 total yards. HHS senior Dakota Burchett had a pair of interceptions, CJ Lee recovered a fumble and Hutcheson, who had a team-high 10 tackles, recorded the game’s lone sack.
The Bears (0-1), who went 9-2 last year, actually found the end zone with 35 seconds left in the first half following a Houston fumble. But the score was wiped away by a penalty for 12 players on the field.
Hutcheson put Houston ahead midway through the first quarter on the team’s first drive. Taking a jet sweep around the left edge, he cut back toward the middle and leapt through the arms of two potential tacklers to cap an 11-yard run. The PAT was no good.
Houston’s second score was an impressive 99-yard drive that ended with Sawyer tight-roping inside the sideline to finish a 23-yard touchdown run after taking a double handoff from Dixon. The 10-play drive included 22-and 35-yard rushes by Dixon and Hutcheson. Dixon converted a fourthand-4 with a six-yard run two plays before Sawyer’s touchdown at the 8:55 mark of the second quarter.
Sawyer, who mostly paves the way for Dixon and Hutcheson as the starting fullback, had seven carries for 33 yards.
“We kind of have three bad dudes that come in all shapes and sizes,” Sloan said.
Down 12-0, Sarcoxie threatened to get back in the game after recovering a fumbled punt on the HHS 30-yard line. The Bears moved to the 8 with under a minute left and scored an apparent touchdown when Hayden Kisling hit Colton Pfitzner on a quick slant.
As the officials signaled for a score, Sloan and his staff were screaming from the sidelines for them to count the players on the field. They did and penalized Sarcoxie for too many men on the field.
“I was begging them,” Sloan said. “I don’t know that’s the reason they scored, but I was convinced it was.”
A 15-yard pass to Pfitzner on the ensuing play moved the Bears to the 4-yard line. But on fourth down, the HHS defense stuffed Kendrick Bass for no gain on a dive up the middle.
“Bend but don’t break. We had some opportunities to prove that saying correct,” Sloan said. “We had our backs to the goal line and kept fighting.”
The Tigers’ final points were set up by another fourth-down conversion: this time a 15-yard pass from Burchett to tight end CJ Lee. Hutcheson scored from 16 yards out on the ensuing play with 9:09 remaining in the game.
Houston ran the ball on 54 of its 61 plays.
“We were pretty vanilla,” Sloan said. “I’d like to throw it a little more but when it’s not broke, let’s just keep pounding the rock.”
As he huddled his team on the south end of Sarcoxie’s turf field, Sloan congratulated them on a hard-fought victory and overcoming adversity. But he also challenged them not to be satisfied.
“It’s a great way to start the year. 1-0 going home next week to hopefully a full house, it’s going to be fun,” he said. “We don’t want to be satisfied. We have a lot of work to do.”