Heat to host Bearcats

After a season in gridiron exile, the Hot Springs Savage Heat have returned to the throne and are champions once more.

Coach Jim Lawson and his Heat, who were forced into an 8-Man experiment by the MHSA which failed in 2017, clinched the Western C division 6-Man regular season title with a 69-0 bashing of the visiting Lima Bears in Hot Springs Friday.

Completing regular season action with 7-1 record in conference play and 9-1 overall, the Heat will open the State C playoffs as the No. 1 seeded team from the Western C, and will host 5-4 Denton-Geyser-Stanford, the No. 4 team from the Northern C, in a first round game in Hot Springs Saturday at 1 p.m.

If the Heat defeat D-G-S, they will then host the winner of the game between 7-2 Jordan and 8-1 Roy-Winifred the following week.

Lawson and the Heat are thinking only of D-G-S right now. The Bearcats also played 8-Man last year before being allowed to return to the 6-Man game this season.

Although the Bearcats struggled at times early on, they have proved to know their way around the 6-Man game as evidenced by their 37-12 win over White Sulphur Springs several weeks ago. White Sulphur Springs defeated Hot Springs, handing the Heat their only defeat of the season 20-18 in White Sulphur way back on Aug. 30.

"We think we are a different team now than we were early this season," Lawson said. "It took us a little while to figure out some things but we are playing much better now.

"D-G-S is pretty similar to us with the formations they use and they are real athletic with not a lot of size, but a bunch of 160, 170 pound kids flying around," he added. "They have the look of a very good 6-Man team."

The easy win over Lima was a good launching pad for the Heat into the playoffs.

"We played well in all phases of the game against Lima," Lawson said. "We had another shut-down effort on defense – scored a touchdown on that side and two more with our special teams – and were really efficient on offense as well."

As is their habit lately, the Heat roared out to a big lead early – it was 39-0 after the first quarter this time – set the clock in constant motion, and got everyone lots of quality playing time after that.

Luke Waterbury scored the Heat's first touchdown on eight-yard run, Tyler Knudsen then reached paydirt on a 40-yard punt return, and a little while later Tyler's younger brother Brandon returned a punt 50 yards for yet another score.

By the time the first quarter ended, Waterbury had scored another TD on a fumble recovery, Kyle Lawson had caught a 12-yard scoring strike from Brandon Knudsen, and Brandon Knudsen had returned a punt 42 yards for yet another touchdown.

With the clock now in constant motion, Tyler Carr scored on a 30-yard pass from Brandon Knudsen, Jack McAllister reached the end zone on a 19-yard run, Kyle Lawson scored on runs of four and 19 yards and finally, Jesse Uski scored the last six points of the game on a one-yard run in the fourth quarter.

"It was definitely a good win for us," coach Lawson said. "We are happy to get the No. 1 seed and have a home playoff game. We just want to keep improving and keep rolling."