Hancock County delivered a stinging decision in Friday night’s playoff game against Caldwell County.
The Hornets swarmed the Tigers on both sides of the football while dealing Caldwell a 41-0 setback in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs in Hawesville.
Hancock (8-3) will visit Mayfield (9-1) for a second round matchup next week.
Caldwell, which finishes its season 6-5, had some opportunities early against Hancock. But the Tigers could just not generate much of an offensive attack, despite good field position much of the night.
Caldwell was held to just 11 rushing yards and 123 total yards in the contest.
Meanwhile, Hancock netted 337 of its 418 yards on the ground and had a trio of 100-yard rushers.
Brady Eubanks ran for 121 yards and three touchdowns. He scored on a 4-yard run in the first quarter, an 11-yard carry in the second quarter and a 10-yard run in the third quarter.
Quarterback Tripp Hager ran for 107 yards with a 2-yard TD carry in the second quarter. He also passed for two scores — an 8-yard toss to Hunter Greathouse in the third period and a 42-yard pass to Cooper Jones in the fourth period.
Jones caught three passes for 73 yards and ran for 100 yards.
Hancock led just 7-0 after one quarter, but took a 21-0 lead to halftime.
The margin was 35-0 after three quarters.
Daelyn Lander passed for 109 yards for Caldwell, completing 17 of 34 attempts.
Colson Mattocks and Drew Stevens each caught four passes.
Jack Roach led the Tiger defense with 11 tackles. Mattocks and Carter Bedell each had 10 stops. Bedell recovered two fumbles while Roach had one fumble recovery.
It was Hancock’s first win over Caldwell in seven tries. The previous six meetings had all taken place in Princeton.
Caldwell has an all-time playoff record of 32-29. The Tigers are 18-13 in first-round contests.
