CADIZ - Harrison Central's student section billed Saturday afternoon's football game against visiting Weir as ''Super Hero Saturday,'' and some of them even went as far to dress accordingly.
While junior tailback Maurtice Hython wasn't wearing a cape, he was definitely the closest thing to Superman on the field.
Hython carried the ball 15 times for 145 yards - he had a 79-yard scoring burst called back - and scored a pair of touchdowns as the Huskies rebounded from a Week-1 loss in pounding the injury-riddled Red Riders by a 41-7 margin at scorching-hot Wagner Field.
Coach Justin Kropka's squad turned the ball over five times in losing to Claymont last week but did not commit a miscue Saturday.
Harrison got the scoring going on its initial possession, moving 70 yards on nine plays and taking 4:04 off the clock. The two biggest plays were a fake punt on fourth-and-2 from its own 38 in which Hython gained 8, and a 30-yard scoring strike from junior David Myser to Chris Hyde.
Miser found Hyde streaking across the middle with the latter darting into the end zone after the catch. J.P. Colnaghi's point-after made it 7-0 at 6:28.
After having a pair of scores called back on penalties, the Huskies got one back following a Hyde interception that had them set up on the Red Riders 30.
Just one play later Miser hit classmate Josh Moore deep down the middle for another 30-yard touchdown pass for a 14-0 lead.
However, it turned out to be one of three touchdowns tallied in the final 3:36 of the half.
Weir got the big play from junior running Eric Piatt a short time later, going 74 yards to the Harrison Central 1 before being pushed out of bounds. It looked like disaster might strike for the Red Riders, who fumbled two players later, but senior Ethan Barnes was there to fall on the loose football for a score at 1:30.
Kropka went to his bag of tricks 30 seconds later with Miser hitting Austin Schurr on a quick 8-yard out pass. Schurr then quickly pitched the ball back with Hython traveling the final 65 yards to complete the pretty hook-and-lateral play to make it 21-7 at the break.
Hython added a 2-yard burst with 5:34 left in the third while Schurr returned a punt 71 yards for a touchdown at 1:22to make it a 35-7 count.
Ironically, it was the first time the Huskies actually even had a return man deep.
''We tried to block kicks the first two times and didn't send anyone back,'' Kropka said. ''Then Austin (Schurr) wasn't sure if he should drop back or not on the third one, but he did and when the fastest kid on your team gets it in that situation it sets things up.
''It seemed like the breaks were going our way at that point, but we have been on the other side of that also.''
Senior Trace Butler took the final score into the end zone from 4 yards away midway through the final quarter.
As for the fake punt and the hook-and-lateral, Kropka could only smile about the plays.
''You practice things and you never know when you are going to get to use them,'' he said. ''But sometimes the time is right. We have worked on that hook-and-lateral for seven years, but never used it until last week and now we have used it twice this year.''
First-year coach Jason Kekseo of Weir entered the game with some injury problems and watched things only get worse as freshman quarterback William Larch injured his shoulder in the second quarter.
''We are not hustling to the ball on defense,'' Kekseo said. ''And that falls on the coaching staff. We have got to do a better job getting these kids ready to play.
''And we really have not been prepared for all these injuries, but our backups have got to be ready to go out and play. These kids have got to learn how to win and it is going to be a process to get to that point.''
