Photo by DJ Watson Harrison Central’s Mykel Quito rushes against the Union Local defensive line. Quito scored a pair of touchdowns in the Huskies’ Friday victory.

CADIZ — Last year’s 48-14 setback to Union Local left a bitter taste in the mouths of Harrison Central coach Anthony Hayes and his Huskies.

However, that disappointment led the Huskies to a motivating week of practice and ultimately a commanding 49-6 home victory over the Jets on Friday night.

Harrison Central ran for 222 yards, threw for 110, while the defense held the high-flying previously unbeaten Jets to 130 total yards of offense.

“Our kids were embarrassed for our lack of energy, our lack of focus and our lack of execution against them last year,” Hayes said.

“Credit to (Union Local), they had a really good team last year but we felt like we didn’t go down there and fight with them and we weren’t happy with that. So our kids focused all week long on just battling and competing. They were really dialed in and it was a total team effort,”he continued.

The Huskies’ determination showed early and often.

On Union Local’s opening drive, Jets’ quarterback Isaiah Tomolonis found speedster Dre Saunders for what they thought was a 72-yard touchdown but a holding penalty negated the score.

Harrison wasted no time capitalizing as Cam McAfee hauled in an interception on the very next play that set the Huskies up at Union Local’s 18-yard line. Moments later, running back Mykel Quito plunged in from a yard out to give Harrison a 6-0 edge.

“Our defense played lights out,” Hayes said. “Our defensive coaching staff — Coach (Drew) Case, Coach (David) Nameth, and Coach (Roger) Herbert — those guys did a great job with our game plan this week. I think our defense led us and our offense fed off of them.”

Union Local punted on its next possession and after the initial punt landed near the 10-yard line, another penalty forced a re-kick, which turned out to be a difference of roughly 46 yards, setting Harrison up with another short field at UL’s 44 yard line.

“That summed up our night but first and foremost, I take the blame,” UL coach Bernie Thompson said. “We didn’t come ready to play and (Harrison Central) was the better team. We had a touchdown called back for holding and we really couldn’t do anything right. It was a frustrating night but there are two ways to look at it — you can mope and make excuses but we’re not going to do that. We’re going to get back to the drawing board and get better.”

Huskies’ QB Hayden Cassidy took advantage of the great field position with a 16-yard TD pass to Parker Hutton to create a 14-0 upper hand with 4:35 to play in the opening stanza.

The Jets also committed three turnovers, the second coming on a fumble that set up a 4-minute Huskies’ TD drive that culminated in Cassidy connecting with Alex Fluharty for a 20-yard scoring strike early in the second quarter.

Union Local did respond this time as Tomolonis dazzled with a first down scamper of 14 yards after the ball was snapped over his head and nearly 20 yards into the backfield. He also finished the drive with a 6-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit to 20-6 with 8:56 remaining in the half.

That was as close as it got for the Jets though.

The final score of the first half was set up by a 40-yard run by McAfee and a 22-yard run by Quito. Cassidy followed by showcasing his own speed on a 31-yard touchdown spurt for a 28-6 halftime advantage.

“(Cassidy) needed this game,” Hayes said of his standout QB. “We needed to find a way to get him in a rhythm. He’s a really good football player and we game planned some stuff to get him in a rhythm and it seemed to work. The fact that we can hand the ball to multiple guys is helpful to us and makes it hard to key on one player.”

Cassidy struck again in the second half with a 25-yard touchdown run that sent the running clock into action with the score reading 36-6.

Quito added another score from 13 yards away and Cassidy found the end zone one final time with a 5-yard jaunt to wrap up the scoring.

Cassidy finished with 110 yards and two passing touchdowns, and 62 yards and three rushing touchdowns. Quito turned in 69 yards on the ground with a pair of scores.

“We knew we had to be ready to play,” Hayes said. “We asked everyone on the team to do a job this week and they all stepped up and got it done.”

As for the Jets, they will look to move on from their first loss of the season and set their sights on next week.

“We’re going to take this as a humbling loss,” Thompson said. “There is a lot to be learned here. We didn’t play our best by any means but that score doesn’t indicate who we are. I promise that good will come from this and I promise you’ll see a better team on the field next week.”