TCU commit Hauss Hejny’s 5 touchdowns powers Aledo Bearcats past Burleson Centennial
Aledo, the top-ranked team in Class 5A-DI, continues to roll.
The Bearcats scored three times in the first quarter and had little trouble with visiting Burleson Centennial on Friday night, winning 42-0 at Tim Buchanan Stadium.
The undefeated Bearcats (8-0, 6-0 District 3-5A Division I) got five touchdowns from TCU pledge Hauss Hejny in the first half.
The senior helped the Bearcats race out to a 35-0 lead at the break against the Spartans (5-2, 3-2) and it started on the game’s first possession. After a rocky start, he kept the drive alive with a first-down run and then busted open for a 40-yard score with 8:55 left.
With the score, the Bearcats have scored in 291 consecutive games.
He capped the second Aledo drive with a 6-yard score on another keeper, this one coming with 2:19 left. Before the first quarter was over, the Bearcats added one more.
Centennial fumbled the ensuing kickoff and junior Owen Henderson recovered the ball. With 22 seconds left in the opening stanza, Hejny threw the first of three first-half touchdown passes.
“Our coaches come up with a great game plan, and we just had to go out and play our brand of football,” Hejny said.
He connected with Ray Guillory on a 34-yard connection to make it 21-0.
Hejny added touchdowns passes to Trace Clarkson and Hawk Patrick-Daniels for 43 and 27 yards, respectively, in the second quarter.
“I asked our guys at halftime if they felt like they were getting their rear ends kicked all over the place and basically everyone said ‘they didn’t feel that way’,” Centennial head coach Kyle Geller said. “But we are down 35-0. We were making plays on the field, driving down the field but didn’t finish the drivers and you know that is frustrating.
“This may be the best Aledo team since I’ve been here and coached against them. They are solid everywhere as usual, they got the star guys, but they just have some really good football players.”
With a turbo-clock type of lead, Hejny didn’t play in the second half, as backup Gavin Beard, a sophomore, came in the opening drive of the third quarter.
Beard threw a touchdown to Kaydon Finley to boost the lead to 42-0.
“It is good to see them out there and compete and do that because they deserve it,” Hejny said of the backups. “Gavin’s the next man up and he is a really good quarterback. He has great vision and great pocket awareness. I think the sky’s the limit for him because he can do stuff like in the pocket and move in and check the ball down. He’s going to be really good. It is fun to see him get that experience because he’s going to be the quarterback the next two years.”
On the other side of the ball, Centennial played with a backup as well due to an injury to starter Iverson Moore.
The 6-foot-1 senior was injured carrying the ball and was down for more than 10 minutes. He was ultimately loaded onto a backboard and taken off the field in a stretcher before leaving in an ambulance.
Cesar Beltran, a junior, replaced Moore as the Titans’ quarterback. Geller said there is concern for Moore but they think he’ll be okay.
The Bearcats defense pitched its third shutout of the season, which included a fumble recovery by LSU commit Davhon Keys.
Honoring the past
During halftime of the game, two former championship teams were honored by Aledo.
The 1998 team and the 2013 teams both had former players on the field to be recognized for their accomplishments. The 1998 team won the first state championship for a program that now has won 11.
The Bearcats beat Cuero, 14-7, in the 3A Division I state finals at the Astrodome in Houston in 1998. Former head coach Tim Buchanan led the Bearcats to the 4A Division II championship in 2013 with a 38-10 win over Brenham.
Up next, Aledo will face Denton Ryan Fridat at 7 p.m. CT at Tim Buchanan Stadium. The Burleson Centennial Spartans will hit the road to face Fort Worth Brewer at the same time.