Offensive lineman DeAngelo Wofford had a few quips for quarterback Bryce Gray on the sideline during Homewood-Flossmoor’s game Friday night against Stagg.
“I’ve never seen Bryce sweat during a game,” Wofford said to his fellow linemen. “Bro, do you ever sweat during games?”
It sure didn’t look like it in H-F’s SouthWest Suburban Blue opener. Gray tossed a trio of first-half touchdowns and stood on the sideline for the entire second half as the Vikings rolled to a 67-6 victory in Palos Hills.
“We try our best to make sure he doesn’t get touched at all,” said Wofford, the starting center. “Any chance we get for him to not break a sweat, that’s what we like to see. I like joking around with him because he sits back there and all he does is throw touchdowns.”
Gray finished 7-for-10 for 172 yards for the Vikings (3-0, 1-0). He hit Kendric Pryor for a 35-yard TD and later added scoring strikes of 38 and 39 yards to Deante Harley-Hampton and Tyrice Richie.
“If the (offensive line) does their job — works for me, blocks for me — if the running backs and wide receivers run hard and run their routes, I shouldn’t have to sweat,” Gray said.
Gray pointed to the play of Deante and Devonte Harley-Hampton as a major reason why he was able to keep his jersey clean against Stagg (1-2, 0-1).
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“We’re seeing a lot of single coverage,” Gray said. “It’s real surprising. We’ve got Kendric Pryor, a Wisconsin commit, going one-on-one a lot. And we’ve got Tyrice Richie going one-on-one. Not a lot of people know about him, but they will real soon.
“That’s just a testament to the twins. I think they’re at least top three backs in the state. They open everything else up. We start with them and we go with them.”
Devonte-Harley Hampton ran for 134 yards and three TDs on seven carries. Deante-Harley Hampton added 81 yards and two TDs on eight carries.
“They’re hard to tackle,” Stagg coach Mike Fahey said. “Once they got into space, we had nobody to match up with them.”
Stagg made it 28-6 late in the first quarter on a 2-yard keeper from Joe Van Nieuwenhuyse.
The Chargers looked to ride running back Herbert Hughes after he racked up 344 yard in a Week 2 victory over Andrew, but the bruising junior didn’t find nearly as many holes against the state’s top-ranked team.
Hughes finished with 65 yards on 18 carries and was helped off the field following his last one. After the game, Hughes was seen carted off on a stretcher for precautionary reasons, according to Fahey.
H-F coach Craig Buzea was pleased with the play of his reserves, and more importantly, that his team avoided a letdown after avenging its Class 8A state championship defeat to Stevenson last week.
“Last week sort of made us feel a little bit better, but this game had a lot more meaning in terms of the conference,” Buzea said.
Logan Malloy is a freelance writer for the Daily Southtown.