Senior leads Hawks to victory

VALDEZ — Long postgame bus trips are typically fairly quiet for the Houston Hawks. But on Saturday, the ride back to Houston was a little different.

“They’re kind of fired up tonight,” Houston head coach Norm Bouchard said by cell phone as the team was on the bus somewhere on the Glenn Highway. “They’re pretty excited.”

And the Hawks had a good reason for that enthusiasm, a 48-24 nonconference win over Valdez.

“They’re feeling pretty good about the weekend,” Bouchard said.

Senior Brandon Dukes rumbled for nearly 200 yards and scored three touchdowns to push the Hawks to 1-0 overall. Junior quarterback Beau Franks ran for a pair of touchdowns and threw for another. Tyler Barron also scored, and senior Brett Lapham hauled in the Franks touchdown pass.

Houston led 21-16 at the half, but blew the game open with three touchdowns early in the third quarter. A pair of Dukes scores and the Lapham catch gave the Hawks the large lead.

Bouchard said Dukes, who led the Hawks in rushing as a junior, enjoyed an excellent afternoon carrying the football.

“He ran real well off tackle,” Bouchard said. “We just had a good blocking scheme against their defense.”

Bouchard said Barron also flirted with a 100-yard game. Full statistics were not available as of press time.

Lapham also stood out on defense, Bouchard said, with a pair of interceptions. Lapham had a third pick in the fourth quarter, but the turnover was negated due to a penalty. Bouchard also applauded the overall play of his defense.

“Defensively we really came in and put some pressure on,” Bouchard said.

The Hawks held the Buccaneers to negative yardage in the second half.

Houston, which scored just one victory last season, will take a 1-0 record home where it will host Ketchikan on Saturday. Ketchikan is the lone team Houston defeated last season.