By Gary Thomas

Life seems to come in “3s” and for the third straight year the Highland Home (HHS) Flying Squadron have captured the Crenshaw County football title with a 34-8 victory over their longtime nemesis, the Luverne (LHS) Tigers this past Friday.

In this key 2A Region 3 battle, Coach Justin Bragg’s Flyboys used a well-balanced offense and a shutdown defense in holding the Tigers to just 124 yards of office and only eight points. The victory also marked their third year in a row of complete dominance of Luvern in the storied rivalry.

Coach Bobby Hudson’s Tigers received the opening kickoff using a slowdown offense in hopes of slowing down the offense and it worked for most of the first quarter. But then, the big blue marched 86 yards in eight plays to put points on the board when senior quarterback T.J. Washington hit a senior wideout on a 50-yard scoring toss with 2:09 left in the quarter. Place kicker Austin Norman’s PAT was good for a 7-0 lead.

Midway through the second quarter, the Squadron hit pay dirt once again with Washington going in from two yards out to cap off a seven-play, 65-yard march. The duo of Washington and Tyler Chaney struck on a 36-yard scoring pass for the Flyboys third score of the night. Norman’s kick was true to give HHS a three-touchdown lead, 21-0.

After the Squadron’s strong defensive wall forced the Tigers to turn over the ball on downs, Highland Home closed out the first half scoring when Washington hit Logan Taylor standing all alone in the back of their end zone to give HHS a 27-0 advantage.

After HHS received the second-half kickoff, the turnover bug hit their offense on the first play from the line of scrimmage when running back Austin Crittenden dropped the ball at his own 39-yard line. That’s when Tiger doubleback Jayden Laird bounced on the loose ball.

From there, quarterback Kane Smith marched the Tigers 39 yards with him doing most of the work in seven plays to put up their only score for the game. Smith’s two-point attempt was good and the score stood HHS 27, LHS 8.

Highland Home closed out the game when Washington hit Channey on a 20-yard passing touchdown as the final score read 34-8.

The Squadron had 349 yards of the total offense, 173 yards on the ground and 176 yards in the air. Washington was 10 for 14 for 176 yards from his quarterback spot with four touchdowns. Crittenden had 122 yards rushing on 10 carries and Chaney had 99 yards and 18 first downs.

The Tigers had only 124 yards total offense and six first downs.

The No. 2 ranked Squadron hit the road to face Pike Lib in Troy on Friday. Luverne will host Barbour County at home. Both games kick off at 7 p.m.