Football: Fort Davis has no trouble in season opener

MIDLAND At this point, comparing this Fort Davis team to last season’s squad that reached the six-man Division I state semifinals is a tricky to do.

Using Saturday’s season-opening 58-7 win over Midland Trinity as a measurement, the 2008 Indians beat the Chargers 46-0 and also used the 45-point mercy rule.

But last year, Fort Davis didn’t close the deal until the 4:32 mark in the third quarter.

On Saturday, a second half was not even necessary because of the mercy rule.

Yet Indians head coach Lonnie Flippen is reluctant to draw a conclusion because, he’ll remind you, this year’s squad is awfully similar to last year’s.

“This is last year’s team,” Flippen said. “Four guys on this team played almost every snap last year, whether on offense or defense, so I’m not about to make that comparison.”

In the interest of analysis, the Indians, at the very least, did well in backing up their belief that a repeat of last year’s success is highly possible again.

Yes, the Chargers started a freshman quarterback and turned the ball over seven times — four fumbles, three interceptions by the signal-caller J.M. Hillman — but credit should be given to the Fort Davis players who stripped those balls away and picked the balls out of the air. Fort Davis senior Marcus Hartnett had all three interceptions.

And, in perhaps one of the final references to one of the team’s storylines, Fort Davis showed it will be fine without the graduated all-state running back Adrian Hernandez.

“Adrian was a really good player,” said senior running back Gerry Aufdengarten, whose 10-yard scoring run at the 8:39 mark in the second quarter helped put the Indians ahead 8-7. “And everyone thinks we’re not going to be as good without him. But today we showed everybody that we are a good team. We miss him, but we think we’ll be just as good without him.

Like Aufdengarten would go on to say, these Indians seem to have plenty of legitimate playmakers.

They begin with Hartnett, whose three picks were invaluable and his offensive abilities, whether passing or running, are of high quality.

After Aufdengarten’s go-ahead run and an Indians fumble recovery, Hartnett received a pitch and passed it to Robert Moore for a 25-yard touchdown.

Hartnett finished with three passing scores and two rushing TDs.

“Joe Ramos played safety last year and was at one point the leading interceptor in the state,” Flippen said. “Hartnett is able to play the position just as well.”

Freshman Steve Enriquez also had a fine evening for the Indians. He directed the team at quarterback for pretty much all of the second quarter and finished with one passing touchdown, one receiving TD and one rushing score, a 33-yard run with three seconds remaining in the first half that put the mercy rule in effect.

“We didn’t know how we were going to do offensively today,” Flippen said. “We didn’t do much on offense during the scrimmages, but today we managed to put six guys on the field that played pretty well together.”

Maybe because most of those six did so last year, too.

>> Fort Davis 58, Midland Trinity 7

At Grande Communications Stadium, Midland

Midland Trinity                    7    0          —  7

Fort Davis                         34  24          — 58

(Game ended by 45-point mercy rule)

SCORING SUMMARY

First Quarter

Midland Trinity: Robert John Cepero 23 run (Wilson Echols pass from J.M. Hillman), 8:39.

Fort Davis: Gerry Aufdengarten 10 run (Mark Cauble kick), 6:39.

Fort Davis: Robert Moore 25 pass from Marcus Hartnett (kick failed), 5:57.

Fort Davis: Hartnett 38 run (Cauble kick), 4:12.

Fort Davis: Hartnett 18 run (kick failed), 3:13.

Fort Davis: Moore 19 pass from Steve Enriquez (kick failed), 2:08.

Second Quarter

Fort Davis: Enriquez 30 pass from Hartnett (Cauble kick), 8:08.

Fort Davis: Talyn Brugette 23 pass from Hartnett (Cauble kick), 6:37.

Fort Davis: Enriquez 33 run (Cauble kick). :3.

———

TEAM STATISTICS

                                                MT              FD

Total yards                             132            240

Rushes-yards                    19-83       15-165

Passing                                    49            105

Comp-Att-Int                       4-8-3       6-11-0

Fumbles-Lost                         5-4             0-0

Penalties-Yards                    2-10           2-10

———

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

Midland Trinity: Robert John Cepero 13-74; Aaron Watson 1-3; J.M. Hillman 5-6.

Fort Davis: Gerry Aufdengarten 5-30, Marcus Hartnett 4-70; Tyler Evans 1-10; Stetson Chandler 1-3; Francisco Perez 2-18; Steve Enriquez 2-34.

PASSING

Midland Trinity: Hillman 4-8-3—49.

Fort Davis: Enriquez 2-6-0—24; Marcus Hartnett 3-4-0—77; Evans 1-1-0—4.

RECEIVING

Midland Trinity: Jackson Willingham 1-21; Russell Stimmel 1-17; Cepero 2-11.

Fort Davis: Moore 2-23; Evans 1-24; Talyn Brugette 1-23; Perez 1-5; Enriquez 1-30.