Hazel Green beats out Sparkman

BY JIM SANDOVAL / FOR THE RECORD

The Hazel Green Trojans used four Sparkman Senator first half turnovers to spring to a 28-7 halftime lead en route to a decisive victory in the area play opener.

Sparkman jumped out to an early lead after forcing the Trojans to punt on their first two possessions.  Lorenzo James broke a 43 yard touchdown run with a Miller Matzek PAT kick to give the Senators the early 7-0 lead. Hazel Green stormed back with a 6 play, 80 yard drive to tie the score.  On the drive Chris Collier fired a 30 yard pass to Christopher Ungacta to set up a Rodney Held 24 yard touchdown run.

The Trojans recovered a fumble deep in Sparkman territory and with penalty yardage tacked on found themselves on the 10 yard line to start their next drive. Latrez Wike took it into the end zone on the first play for a 14-7 lead.

A run by a player not listed on the roster and a Collier to Wike 27 yard strike gave the Trojans their 28-7 half time lead.

The second half was more of the same with Wike scoring on an 11 yard run and Carl Parker scoring on a 25 yard pass from Collier.  Sparkman took a page out of the Trojan playbook, recovering a fumble that led to their final score, a James 4 yard run.  The two point conversion try failed and the game ended with a 42-13 final score.

Trent Malone had an interception for the Senators.

Sparkman falls to 0-2 (0-1 in area play) and hosts James Clemens next Friday.

Hazel Green moves to 2-0 (1-0) and travels to Decatur.