Featured photo by Kelsey Chanler
What a difference a year has made for the Minden Crimson Tide.
Last year, Minden was lamenting two close losses to open the season. Friday night, the Tide improved to 2-0 with a 39-20 victory over Homer in their home opener. They avenged a 26-20 loss to the Pelicans in Week 2 last year.
As was the case in the season-opening victory against Mansfield, many Minden players contributed to the victory.
The Tide controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Four Minden running backs rushed for 34 or more yards led by Denarius Crowe’s 77 on 11 carries, per stats kept for KASO/KBEF’s radio/web broadcast.
Quarterback Hudson Brown threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Kameron Harris. He also scored on a 1-yard sneak in the second half.
“I was very proud of the strength of our team, the offensive and defensive lines,” Minden Head Coach Spencer Heard said. “I thought they did a tremendous job tonight. Up front we were able to kind of control the ball. A bunch of people ran the ball, touched the ball.
“I thought Hudson did a great job of managing everything. It was just a pretty good overall showing.”
Gregory Williams, Homer’s outstanding running back, rushed for 189 yards and scored three touchdowns. But 135 of those came on touchdown runs of 76 and 59 yards.
“He’s an outstanding back,” Heard said. “We won’t see one that’s much better.
“Overall I think we did a good job of trying to bottle him up. He’s a really good athlete. He got his yards on a couple of plays.”
Minden played a near-flawless first half. Lucas Owens Jr. scored on a 27-yard run in the first quarter. Bryson Ranger’s 36-yard field goal gave the Tide a 10-0 lead early in the second quarter.
Williams got Homer (0-2) on the board with his 76-yard run. But the Tide scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes of the half on Brown’s pass to Harris and a 1-yard run by Owens.
Jaden Johnson scored a two-point conversion and Minden led 25-6 at the half.
The Pelicans got within 11 on a 9-yard run by Williams and his two-point conversion run midway through the third quarter.
Minden answered with a 66-yard, 10-play drive late in the third capped by Brown’s sneak.
Williams’ 59-yard run cut the Tide’s lead to 32-20 early in the fourth quarter. But Brayden Britton took the ensuing kickoff back 75 yards for a touchdown. Braxton Glover’s fourth PAT ended the scoring.
Heard said his team’s maturity is one reason the Tide was able to fend off Homer when the Pelicans cut into the lead.
“I feel like this team is a very mature team, a team that has a mindset that we’re going to go out there and grind it out,” he said. “We don’t panic when things like that happen. We just come back, next play. We’ve got a really good mindset about that.”
Owens finished with 53 yards on nine carries. Kaiden Shine had 48 on five and Porter Neal had 34 on six.
Homer had 250 total yards with 135 coming on Williams’ two big runs. Kevin Williams completed 7-of-17 passes for 75 yards.
Minden travels to Springhill Friday to take on North Webster. The Knights (1-1) defeated North Caddo 14-6 Friday night.