Rebels rout area foe Vincent

Published 1:13 am Saturday, October 4, 2014

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By Coe Robbins | Special to the Advertiser

Running backs Kevin Mims and Kevin Owens combined for 242 yards and four touchdowns as Thorsby cruised to a 34-0 victory over Vincent on Friday in a Class 2A, Region 4 showdown.

The Rebels (4-2 overall, 3-0 region) scored early and often in the first half, converting touchdowns on 4-of-5 possessions and piling up 11 first downs compared to only one for the Yellow Jackets (3-3, 2-1).

“That’s the best (performance) I’ve seen around here in a long, long time,” Thorsby head coach Billy Jackson said. “We came out, and Vincent’s a good team, but we just got on them early and kind of took it to them and I think they were kind of in shock a little bit.”

Thorsby managed 331 total yards for the game to Vincent’s 116 total yards. Vincent head coach Jason Hill said that his team’s performance falls on him.

“We were not well prepared enough,” Hill said. “Coach Jackson and his staff did a great job scheming us up, and they were more physical than us and they really wanted it more than we did.”

THS got the scoring going quickly when on their first possession, the offense marched right down the field, capping a 61-yard drive with a 12-yard touchdown run by running back Ken Mims that took a little over two minutes. A blocked point-after try by the Yellow Jackets kept the score 6-0.

“We hadn’t come out of the gate like that all year,” Jackson said. “We managed to put together two halves, and that’s something we haven’t done in a long time.”

In the second quarter, Vincent managed to get to the Thorsby 6-yard line and was knocking on the door to cutting into the 20-0 lead. On a fourth-down play, Vincent quarterback JaCorey Roper’s pass fell incomplete, giving THS the ball.

On the next possession, Thorsby running back Kevin Mims busted it 52 yards down to the Vincent 45.

“That was the turning point,” Jackson said. “If we had allowed them to score right there, it’s a ballgame.”