MURPHY, Ore – The Henley Hornets 2-0(5-0) took care of business on the road with a 42-14 win over the Hidden Valley Mustangs 1-2(2-3).
The Hornets’ first possession began with 7:25 to go in the first quarter after the Henley defense stuffed HV and forced a punt. The Hornets took four plays to drive 61 yards for a touchdown. Senior quarterback Shaw Stork connected with Luke Bennett from 26 yards out to give them a 7-0 lead.
The game plan for the Mustangs immediately became clear on their second possession: keep the ball away from the Henley offense. Hidden Valley engineered a 17-play 66-yard drive that erased roughly seven and a half minutes of the game clock. The drive was capped off with a Daniel Iwamizu touchdown for the Mustangs. It would be the only time he found the endzone all night.
“We focused on the outside run with [Iwamizu] because he likes to run that rock outside,” said sophomore Mark Carpenter. “We had to keep him contained and push him back inside.”
Iwamizu would finish the night with 129 yards and a score. He entered the contest as the third-best rusher in the state, behind Henley’s Logan Whitlock. The Hornets junior rumbled for 146 yards on 15 carries with two touchdowns.
In the first half, the Hornets only had three possessions. The Mustangs did a good job of keeping the ball away from the red-hot Henley offense, but every time that unit got the football, they found paydirt. The score at halftime was 21-7.
Henley began the second half with the football. Stork connected with Chris Janney for his third touchdown of the night and later found Owen Cheyne for his fourth. Logan Whitlock capped off the third quarter with a 55-yard house call that put the Hornets up 42-7. The second unit for Hidden Valley would score in the final seconds of the game to make the final score 42-14
The mark of a good offense is efficiency. The Hornets were incredibly efficient in taking advantage of the few possessions they had. Henley scored on all six of their drives. That’s 100% efficiency – you can’t get any better than that.
Shaw Stork finished the night completing 11 of 13 passes for 176 yards and four touchdowns. Mark Carpenter added another interception in the third quarter, his third on the year.
Next week the undefeated Hornets return to Hill O’Brien Field for homecoming against Klamath Union 1-2(2-3).
