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Indians cruise to second big win of the season
After Hayti’s 56-14 clobbering of the fifth-ranked Thayer Bobcats in week one’s season opener, questions arose if the sixth-ranked Hayti Indians (2-0) could put together another near-flawless, big-numbers and wide-margin win, this time against the Charleston Blue Jays (0-2). As the final minutes of the game ticked away at Charleston’s stadium Friday night, those questions and concerns were put to rest as Hayti completely annihilated the Blue Jays 62-15.
Other than a couple of botched third-quarter opportunities inside the Charleston 20, the Indians played their brand of football by dominating the line of scrimmage and efficiently using the team’s speed on both sides of the ball. Hayti racked up 26 first downs and 597 yards of total offense. The defensive unit was relentless as well, led by second-week breakout player Jason Weatherspoon, who paced The Tribe with nine tackles, two sacks, a batted ball and numerous hurries on Charleston signal-caller Lee Thomas Moody. Other defensive breakouts were LaKeith Robinson, Matthew Wilson (six tackles) and Cedric Barber (five tackles, one sack).
Proud of his defense, head coach Dominique Robinson had this to say after Friday night’s big victory. “He [Weatherspoon] had a slow start last week, so I’ve been trying to get him built up and get him to the playing level where I want him to be,” he said. “LaKeith Robinson is an all-purpose guy, and we use him everywhere – linebacker, defensive line, offensive line. He’s an all-around player and smart enough to play everything. He worked hard this summer, so I’m praising his efforts; he put the work in. The entire defense just did a good job tonight.”
Although Hayti lit up the scoreboard and nicely padded the stats book, the Indians started out slowly and did not cross the goal line for their first TD until 3:33 remaining in the first period. Senior speedster tailback Deva’nte Robinson blasted his way into the end zone with a 12-yard scamper from scrimmage. Tylor Wooden added the PAT to give the Indians a 7-0 lead. This was only the beginning of sorrows for the Blue Jays’ defensive as Robinson would rocket his way through the Charleston defense for 204 rounds rushing on 27 carries.
“Deva’nte is just the whole package. My grand plan was to get him active early on against this team, Charleston, a great team with good speed,” said Coach Robinson. “Sometimes you have to match it [speed] with power, and we were able to do that. Deva’nte had over 200 yards rushing. That’s what I was looking from him today – to get him running the ball downhill.”
Hayti went on to score again in the first period with a 30-yard swing pass from Chrivontae Moore to Ivory Winters to give the Indians a 14-0 advantage, with Wooden’s PAT. Charleston answered with one of their few bright spots of the game with an off-tackle, 20-yard jaunt to the end zone by speedy running back Q’nairies Anderson, a junior, making the score 14-8, counting the Jays’ 2-point conversion. At the first quarter’s conclusion, Hayti was up by a mere six points.
Going into the second period with only a 14-8 lead must have ignited junior QB Chrivontae Moore, who would provide the Indians with another week-two breakout performance. Moore completed 12 of 17 passes for 198 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. He also collected 45 yards on the ground on seven carries.
Although obviously pleased with Moore’s performance, Coach Robinson was not surprised that the Indian QB had a stellar outing. “I’ve never been worried about him, because I coached him in JV. I coached him in pee wee. I knew what he was capable of,” Robinson said. “This guy put in a lot of work in the weight room and a lot of work in the film study. He knew everything everybody was going to do before it happened. He’s got a chip on his shoulder. Everybody’s talking about Allen [Mills], so he’s had a chip on his shoulder.”
In the second quarter, Moore bursts downfield for a 12-yard touchdown run with just under a minute having lapsed off the clock. At the 8:28 mark, Moore found All-Stater Ivory Winters on a long 59-yard bomb for another six. With five minutes, 25 seconds showing on the ticker, the Indians ended a long scoring drive with a Moore 38-yard sprint to pay dirt for another Hayti touchdown. Hayti went up 32-8. Two possessions later, Moore helped Hayti’s field position with an explosive 30-yard gallop from scrimmage. He then zipped a 29-yard pass to John Agnew, giving the Indians a first-and-goal. At the 1:08 mark on the scoreboard, Ivory Winters blasted into the end zone for an Indians touchdown, making the score 38-8, the halftime score.
In the third quarter, Hayti had the opportunity to go up even more on the hapless Blue Jays, but stalled three drives inside the Charleston 20. However, Hayti’s defense backed Charleston up deep into their own territory, leading to a Hayti safety, compliments of a swarming Indians defense led, once again, by LaKeith Roinbson and Jason Weatherspoon. Hayti’s lead went to 40-8. The Blue Jays managed to engineer one more scoring drive, getting the ball across the goal line with four minutes, 48 second remaining in the third period. As time expired in the third period, Moore found Winters for a 32-yard TD pass, putting Hayti up 48-15.
The Indians scored two more touchdowns in the final quarter of the game, first with a 15-yard Deva’nte Robinson run, followed by a 9-yard Jaishaud Moore sprint to pay dirt for the Indians’ final TD of the game.
Tylor Wooden finished the game with 45 yards on the ground and 21 receiving yards. L’Darrius McIntyre picked up 15 yards rushing, and Nikko Richardson gained 29 on the ground. Jaishaud Moore recorded 22 rushing yards. In the receiving department, Ivory Winters went 6-for-144, John Agnew had a reception for 29 yards and William Dunn grabbed a 9-yard reception.
This Friday night at 7 p.m., Hayti hosts Chaffee. The Red Devils are 2-0 on the season with wins over Crystal City and Portageville.