How Hyers Holland made transition from soccer to football to lead Savannah Country Day to win
Before Thursday night, Savannah Country Day's Hyers Holland was best known for his work as a standout center midfielder with the Hornet soccer team -- a position where he runs up to seven miles in one match.
But the junior got his first start at running back with the Hornet football team in their season opener against Windsor Forest and he ran wild in his debut at Savannah High.
Holland showed a nice combination of speed and power as he helped SCD control the tempo of the game from start to finish in a dominating 48-0 non-region win over the Knights. He rushed for a career-high 138 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries, with 111 of them coming in the first half. He also had a third quarter 36-yard touchdown run called back on a false start penalty.
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"Soccer has helped with my running," Holland said. "I think my biggest strength is my top speed, making cuts and being able to break some tackles. But our offensive line did a great job. Guys like Rooster Bing, John Avino and Andrew Nicholson opened up all the holes."
SCD's junior quarterback Barton Mixon looked much improved in his second year as a starter. He was 10 of 13 passing for 135 yards with three scoring passes -- one to Josh Washington and two to Keith James. Mixon also rushed for 52 yards and a pair of scores on nine carries. James also ran for a score.
"Hyers is an excellent athlete and a really durable runner and he had a great game tonight," SCD coach John Mohring said. "And Barton is getting so much better in his second year. He understands all the schemes and he's throwing the ball well, and running really hard. We played well, but had too many penalties. We need to execute better and we'll be working on that."
Windsor was threatening to score late in a battle of reserves, and Mohring brought his first-team defense back in to preserve the shutout as Sam Bueno picked off a pass to end the game.
The defense was led by Bing, who had a strip sack, and Gabe McKinney who also had an interception. Bueno and Hayes Beaver had fumble recoveries as SCD held the Knights to 134 yards of total offense.
Dennis Knight covers sports for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at Dknight@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @DennisKnightSMN
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: How Savannah Country Day dominated in all phases in win over Windsor Forest
