BAUXITE -- On his way to scoring the first of his four touchdowns Friday night, T.J. Hammonds hurdled a Bauxite defender at the 45, landed safely and completed a 61-yard touchdown run.
Pulaski Robinson Coach Todd Eskola said it was nothing out of the ordinary for the 5-11, 200-pound senior.
Hammonds ran 10 times for 199 yards and caught 2 passes for 94 yards as the Senators routed the Miners 50-16 in the season opener for both teams.
"I saw T.J. being T.J.," Eskola said. "He's a special athlete. He's very explosive."
Hammonds scored three times in the first quarter. His first touchdown came on Robinson's second offensive play with 8:57 left. His second score came on a 12-yard run to cap a six-play, 45-yard drive with 3:54 left. His 73-yard reception from Brennan Johnson with 26.5 seconds remaining gave Robinson a 21-7 advantage and ended the Senators' second two-play scoring drive.
"We held him out of our scrimmage," Eskola said. "He tweaked a hamstring during a team camp this summer. Basically, we just wanted to make sure he was 100 percent."
"I wouldn't say 100 percent," Hammonds said. "I could have done a few things better, ran faster, helped the team a little more. But we got the win and that's all that really matters."
After his 30-yard scoring run with 5:09 left in the third quarter, Hammonds was done for the night.
Robinson scored on its first six drives and finished with 547 yards. Johnson completed 9 of 12 passes for 178 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also rushed four times for 54 yards.
Bauxite's Zach Baxley ran 18 times for 97 yards, scoring on an 8-yard run with 6:37 left in the first quarter. Baxley also guided the Miners to an 18-play, eight-minute scoring drive -- which ended with a 22-yard field goal by Dustin Whitfield -- to end the first half. The 5-10 senior quarterback did not play in the second half because of a back injury.
Bauxite rolled up 161 yards, all on the ground, in the first half and finished with 264 yards.
"We did move the ball," Bauxite Coach Dustin Prescott said. "I thought we moved it real well with Baxley in there. ... The big thing was defense. It's hard to make open-field tackles nowadays."
Robinson, which led 28-10 at the half, also picked up a 22-yard scoring pass to Nathan Page and an 11-yard scoring reception by Trenton Dunn.
Reserve quarterback Hunter Eskola and senior Brian Kindall hooked up for a 71 yard touchdown pass for the Senators' final touchdown.
Bauxite's lone touchdown of the second half came on a 64-yard run by senior Jonathan Parsons with 54.8 seconds left in the third quarter.
Sports on 09/05/2015