No. 7 Howard goes Ducks hunting, bags 49-0 win over Odessa for 4th straight win

Howard Wildcats Amir Maddrey waits for a hole to open against Odessa. Photo by Nick Halliday

Howard Wildcats RB Amir Maddrey waits for a hole to open against Odessa. Photo by Nick Halliday

ODESSA- Amir Maddrey was all over the field on Friday night at The Pond, scoring two touchdowns and making multiple big plays on the defensive side of the football to lead #7 Howard to a 38-0 victory over Odessa.

After the game, Maddrey said Howard’s game plan was to focus on the ground game and depended on a strong performance from the offensive line,

“Right from Tuesday we knew it was going to be run, run, run, so shout out to my o-line getting it done,” he said.

And run the ball the Wildcats did with a first-half split of 11 runs to only four passes to take a 14-0 lead into halftime. Maddrey was joined by power back Xavier Grier (two touchdowns) and change-of-pace back Isaiah Harrison (one touchdown) to accumulate all of Howard’s scores via the run.

Odessa came into the game with a 2-4 record and a new offensive philosophy with their “Duck Strong” formation. The new formation is a single-wing style offense that is almost exclusively run plays. The Ducks started off with a great offensive drive after Howard scored on their opening drive to take a 6-0 lead. Odessa would march down to the Howard 21-yard-line and then ran the ball to the goal line before disaster struck. Penalty markers sprinkled the turf back at the line of scrimmage as the explosive play would be called back for a hold. It would only get worse for the Ducks. A five-yard offside penalty and back-to-back negative plays would force Odessa all the way back to mid-field for a punt.

Unfortunately for Odessa, this was their only legitimate scoring threat of the game as Howard would dominate the line of scrimmage for the remainder of the game.

Howard continued to pound the rock in the third quarter, but freshman quarterback Jameson Bryant got some passes in the play mix in the second half. He went 4-7 for 74 yards through the air in this game.

Howard tacked on two more touchdowns in the 3rd quarter (Maddrey & Harrison) and one late in the 4th (Grier) to earn the running clock and close out the 38-0 victory.

The Wildcats won their fourth consecutive game after an 0-3 start and are making a push for a playoff position in 2A. They will face a tough Archmere Academy team on the road next Saturday for an 11 a.m. kickoff.

Odessa (2-5) travels to Tower Hill for a battle of the single-wing offenses next Friday for a 7 pm start.