Klein uses Hamm in Physical ground game to expose Mustangs
Humble – Sophomore running back David Hamm rushed for a game high 213 yards on 31 carries and two touchdowns, the effort helped the Klein Bearkats groundout a 34-13 victory over the Kingwood Mustangs at Turner Stadium on Thursday night.
Kingwood traded punches with Klein for the first half. But it was the late when Klein’s defense pitched a second half shutout while the offense scored 13 unanswered points.
The game got off to firry start when Kade Harrington, who rushed for 139 yards on 24 carries, fumbled on the first play of the game, giving the Bearkats (3-0) possession at the Kingwood 21. Klein’s Hamm chewed up 20 yards, down to the one yard line where Alex Smith finished the drive, scoring from the one yard line, with 11:25 to go in the first quarter.
Klein’s coach Shane Hallmark said, “They (Kingwood) had handled their business well coming into this game and they’ve been able to score a lot of points and score defensive touchdowns. I’m proud of our kids, they played hard and they took the challenges that the coaches gave them, studied film and became students of the game, it showed tonight.”
Trialing early, Kingwood (2-1) marched 74 yards in 13 plays to tie the score at seven on Harrington one yard run. Without the services of running back Van Ross, who was injured early in the first quarter, may have cost the Mustangs some fire power.
“Klein is a great football team to start off with; they got things rolling pretty well”, said Kingwoods coach, Dougald McDougald. We’ve played pretty well the last couple of weeks, but we made way too many mistakes tonight to play with a good football team like that. It’s not characteristic of the way we play; the kids have a lot of character and we’re going to bounce back.”
There was no let up in the Bearkats, as they answered with a nine play 80 yard drive that watched Smith connect with Andrew Santacroce on a post corner route. The pass covered 36 yards, with less than a minute to go in the first quarter (14-7).
Kingwood’s defense would then force a punt to setup a 25 yard field goal from Mitch Glander which cut the lead to four (14-10) with 6:57 remaining in the second period.
After an exchange of fumbles, Klein took advantage of their possession and capped a 75 yard drive when Smith found Ryan Jackson on a 28 yard post pattern to increase the deficit 21-10. The game saw eight combined fumbles, which obviously caused Kingwood the most damage.
Just before halftime, Glander nailed a 45 yard field goal that would have been good from 55, trimming the lead to eight, 21-13.
The second half was all Bearkats and a steady chunk of Hamm which produced TD runs of one and seven to round out the scoring. Klein totaled 355 yards to the Mustangs 278.
