Pillow Academy threw the first punch Friday night. Then Heritage’s Mack Howard sucked the air out of Bill Davis Field.
After the Mustangs recovered a fumble and found the end zone early, the Patriots’ sophomore quarterback picked apart the secondary, finishing 22-of-37 passing for 229 yards and three touchdowns in Heritage’s 19-6 victory over Pillow.
“We can make plays, we just got to stack them,” Mustangs’ head coach Tripp McCarty said. “We had too many bad plays in a row that put us in a hole. We’re dang good, but we’re not good enough to do that.”
Pillow struck first when Britt Reichle’s fumble recovery set up a 16-yard touchdown run by Bryce Miller. But Howard responded in the second quarter with a beautiful fade pass to top target Trey Naugher that gave the Patriots a 7-6 edge at halftime
“(Howard) and Trey (Naugher) have been playing together since fourth grade,” said Heritage head coach Sean Harrison, a former Pillow assistant. “That’s pretty automatic.”
Without offensive lineman Frazier Rose, a crucial 6-foot-6 anchor of the Mustangs’ run-heavy offense, Pillow struggled moving the ball after its early score. The Patriots limited the Mustangs to 3.6 yards per carry and tallied two interceptions while holding them scoreless over the final three quarters. Meanwhile, Howard sealed Heritage’s win with a pair of touchdown passes in the third quarter.
“That kid, he’s so good,” Howard said of Rose, a Central Arkansas commit. “Without him, that’s a major loss. They did a good job first possession, they drove it down our throats. But after that, our defense adjusted and we shut them down.”
• Contact Riley Overend at 581-7237 or roverend@gwcommonwealth.com.
