Saturday, August 30, 2008

{rebels rout liberty}


Coach Tony Matta couldn’t have asked for a better debut.The first-year Rebels head coach got a 63-13 win over visiting Liberty to start his South Albany tenure as all three aspects of his football team performed at a midseason level.The Rebels got on the board early with a heavy dose of the tailback tandem of Jesse Duke and Greg Hoover while quarterback Zac Hunter establish an early season rapport with wideout Matt Savage.After South got on the board with three first- quarter touchdowns, Hunter hooked up with Savage for a 25-yard touchdown, as the two connected for three scores on the night.With the coaches advising their Rebel players to not let up, the offense and defense did so briefly, surrendering 85- and 21-yard touchdown runs on consecutive plays by the Falcons.South would not allow another score the rest of the way, dominating time of possession and field position throughout.“Our kids have been putting in time all summer long,” Matta said after the game.“They’ve really learned how to work hard.”The special teams unit was Matta’s biggest weapon as they accounted for four blocked punts while consistently providing short fields for an offense which put up nine scores.“We approach special teams as another team, so the best 11 guys are going to be on the field at all times,” says Matta.While Duke carried the team with 181 yards on 11 touches, Duke says his team’s 50-point victory was all a team effort.“We showed that we are going to be pretty good running the ball. We did really good on offense and defense tonight. Everything was working,” Duke said on his way to the locker room.“It also helps out a lot when you have a good special teams.”Hoover, Duke’s backfield mate, shares those same sentiments.“Without our offensive line, we’d do nothing. Everything just came together tonight,” says Hoover.“We are showing that we are more of a family this year.”South Albany (1-0) hosts Thurston on Friday.South Albany 63, Liberty 13Liberty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 13 0 0 — 13South Albany . . . . . . . . . . . 20 22 15 6 — 63First quarterSA: Duke 23 run (Hoover run), 4:13SA: Hunter 4 run (run failed), 2:17SA: Savage 13 pass from Hunter (run failed), 1:00Second quarterSA: Savage 25 pass from Hunter (Duke run), 10:54L: Edmonds 85 run (Huffman kick), 10:39L: No. 21 10 run (pass failed), 9:46SA: Robbins 14 pass from Hunter (pass failed) 6:06SA: Savage 27 pass from Hunter (Duke run), 1:26Third quarterSA: Hoover 10 run (Flores run), 9:01SA:L. Stutzman 2 run (Robbins kick), 3:06Fourth quarterSA: B. Stutzman 1 run (kick failed), 7:28Individual statisticsRushing: Liberty, 21-133; Edmonds 12-117, Hahn 4-19, Bohemia 1-7, Selby 2-5, Huffman 1-2, No. 3 1-1. SA 45-414; Duke 11-181, L. Stutzman 5-85, Lehman 4-49, B. Stutzman 7-46, Hoover 5-33, Brown 3-12, Hunter 4-10, Del Rio 3-2.Passing: Liberty, 5-23-0-25; Dunham 4-16-0-30, Bohemia 0-6-0-0, Huffman 1-1-0-(-5). SA — Hunter 6-9-0-112Receiving: Liberty, No. 3 1-15, Smith 1-8, Hahn 1-4, 1-3. SA — Savage 5-98, Robbins 1-14.

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