Featured photo by Kelsey Chanler
A dominant performance by the defense and a powerful running game propelled the Minden Crimson Tide past the Homer Pelicans 28-0 Friday night in Homer.
Minden improved to 1-1. Homer dropped to 1-1.
The Tide limited the Pelicans to five first downs and 78 total yards, per stats kept for the KBEF-FM broadcast.
“I’m very proud of the defense,” Minden Head Coach Spencer Heard said. “They were going to come out there tonight and really execute like a Tide defense, stuffing the run, had a couple of picks, played really well.”
Kameron Harris and Treshun Young had the interceptions.
Minden was coming a 46-38 season-opening loss the Mansfield. The Tide let a 35-0 first-half lead slip away.
Heard said his players put that game behind them quickly.
“I talked to them about not letting that game dictate our season,” he said. “It’s just one game. We’ve got a lot more football to play. The main thing I talked to them about is learning how to finish the game and you’ve got to play hard for four quarters and they did that tonight.
Minden led 21-0 at the half.
The Tide used the formula they had so much success with last season — run the ball.
“Offensively, we were kind of able to control the game with the run game and really got going with that,” Heard said. “Just really proud of the guys effort coming off a week like last week, coming to work, working real hard this last week, staying positive. Just happy with our effort.”
Minden quarterback Hudson Brown, who scored the only touchdown of the second half on a two-yard run, put the ball in the air only once and that resulted in a 32-yard touchdown to Jaden Johnson.
Minden rushed for 329 yards on 54 attempts. Lucas Owens Jr. had a team-high 106 on 16 carries. He scored on runs of 8 yards and 1 yard.
Caylien Aubrey had 88 yards on 12 carries. He scored the first touchdown on a 9-yard run with 3:27 left in the first quarter.
Jardon Carey, Johnson, Kaiden Shine and Brown also contributed to the total.
Minden hosts North Webster Friday. The Knights (1-1) defeated North Caddo 47-14 Friday night.