Hanahan dominates Stall but still seeks to improve

At first glance, it seemed like Hanahan played a complete game on offense, defense and special teams in Friday night’s 56-14 victory over Stall in Region 8-AAA action.
 
The Hawks won their second straight game and improved to 5-2 on the season, including 2-0 in league play. But Hawk coach Charlie Patterson still has many concerns as his team prepared for this weekend’s game against Beaufort.
 
“We were able to score. We were able to finish off most drives,” said Patterson, whose team can control its own destiny in its drive for the region title. “But I think everybody has put 50-60 points on that team.”
 
Stall fell to 0-7 on the season and hasn’t come close to a victory in 2015. The Warriors are averaging less than nine points a game and are surrendering 51.3 points a game after the loss to the Hawks.
 
The Hawks entered Friday’s game against Stall averaging 24.2 points a game and had managed only a combined 21 points the previous three games. The Hawks settled the issue early as Vontre Howard led the way with two rushing TDs. Even the defense got into the scoring act as Quincy Mitchell returned an interception for a score.
 
“But we still have issues to fix,” Patterson said. “We have been playing too sloppy with penalties and things like that: mental mistakes. We are still not blocking well and we’re not executing our passing game. We’re not making the throws and when we do, we drop the ball.”
 
The Hawks will be in for a challenge when the Eagles travel to Hanahan.
 
Beaufort opened the season with two losses, but rebounded to win four consecutive games, scoring 174 points during the streak. The Eagles dropped a 41-30 decision to Hilton Head this past weekend. Hilton Head is the only other team in Region 8-AAA that is undefeated in conference play.
 
“They have two running backs who run extremely hard,” Patterson said of Beaufort, which owns a 4-3 record, including 1-1 in region play. “They are very good at what they do, and that is running the football. They are very well coached and are solid. They are not going to beat themselves. On defense, they don’t have a lot of great athletes. But they are solid. Again, you have to beat them; they are not going to beat themselves.”
 
Hanahan and Hilton Head are both 2-0 in league play with three league games to play. The two teams were scheduled to play earlier this month, but the game was postponed and rescheduled for Nov. 6. after the state was hit with record-setting rain that caused massive flooding in some parts of the state.
 
“We have three tough (region) games remaining,” said Patterson, whose team finishes out the regular season with games against Beaufort, defending region champ Berkeley and Hilton Head. “There are two teams that control their destiny. However, we got our easy (game) out of the way. Hilton Head still has their easy one to play. We have three tough games left. We have to play better if we want to win, want to win the region championship.”