HOME SWEET HOUCK: CENTRAL MAKES HOME DEBUT AGAINST HILLSBORO

The Cape Central Tigers and Hillsboro Hawks appear to be heading in different directions as they enter tonight's football game at Houck Field.

The Tigers are coming off a 31-0 shutout at Farmington while the Hawks got pounded by the Northwest Lions 33-6 in both teams' respective season openers.

"They didn't play particularly well in the first game, but they're a better ball club than Farmington," Central coach Jerry Dement said of Hillsboro. "Northwest just had some success early and kind of got (Hillsboro) down early."

Central appeared in mid-season form last week in its win, rolling up 472 yards of total offense. Tailback Justin Blackmon (128 yards) and fullback Tatum Kitchen (122) both topped 100 yards on the ground and first-year starting quarterback Frank McGinty debuted with 133 yards in the air. Emmanuel Harris added 81 yards rushing on only six carries.

"The key word is balance," Dement said concerning his offense. "We had a good inside running game (Kitchen) and our two tailbacks (Blackmon and Harris) had 200 yards combined.

"Plus our new quarterback (McGinty) threw the ball real nice for his first ball game. We had good balance and that's something we strive to do."

As impressive as the Tigers' offense looked, Dement was just as excited about the defense.

"We executed well at times, but more importantly we ran to the ball well and had good team gang tackling," Dement said.

On the other hand, Hillsboro coach Art Johanningmeier struggled to find a bright spot in his team's loss.

"We didn't play very good and now we're going to play a team that's probably better than Northwest," Johanningmeier said.

The Hawks return four starters on both sides of the ball from last year's 6-4 team that took second in the Jefferson County Conference large school division with a 3-1 mark.

Leading Hillsboro on both offense and defense will be running back/linebacker Ted Bradford (5-11, 190) and two linemen -- Jesse Folk (6-2, 280) and Jason Fears (6-1, 260).

"They're a big, physical-type ball club," Dement said. "They have some great big kids up front and they just like to pound you and do a lot of misdirections and options.

"They have big kids, but we're going to make them run. We'll make those big guys run sideline to sideline."

Last Year, Central totalled over 400 yards of offense in a 28-6 win at Hillsboro. Blackmon had 110 yards rushing and graduated quarterback Bobby Brune threw two touchdowns and ran for two other scores.

The Tigers appear to have the upper-hand for their home opener, but Dement isn't worried about his team being overconfident.

"I think our kids understand they need to play hard every down to keep our success going," Dement said. "Nobody's good enough in high school to take anybody lightly."

* Two starting linemen for the Tigers are still recuperating from injuries suffered just prior to the opener. Senior Jody Wells (6-1, 245) and junior Craig Knoth (6-2, 230) will still be on the sidelines tonight.

Wells, out with a high ankle sprain, could be back next week against Blytheville. Knoth's future is a little more cloudy as he treats an injured knee.