Beaver • The No. 1 seed in the Class 2A South Division looked fresh coming off a first-round bye.
Beaver walloped American Leadership Academy 56-3 on Friday night to reach the state semifinals.
“Two weeks ago, we had that game against Enterprise that didn’t go as well,” Beaver quarterback Porter Hollingshead said, referring to a 12-8 win. “Our coaches kind of got after us, and we just stepped up our game. We made a choice that we were going to do better, and we did tonight.”
Hollingshead got Beaver (9-1) going early with a 5-yard touchdown run, his first of three rushing touchdowns in the quarter.
American Leadership (4-7) responded with a 36-yard field goal by Joseph Valle.
But Hollingshead obliterated any hope of an ALA momentum shift with an 80-yard touchdown run on the first play after the ensuing kickoff.
Hollingshead sneaked in one more score before the end of the first quarter, a 29-yard run made possible by some solid blocking.
“Our line did a fantastic job against guys that were bigger than them out there,” Beaver coach Jon Marshall said. “We opened holes. Our running backs had some great runs. Porter had some great runs. Very pleased with our offensive production tonight.”
PLAYER OF THE GAME <br>Porter Hollingshead racked up four touchdowns in the win. The senior quarterback finished the night 4 of 8 for 114 yards and a touchdown through the air and added 178 yards rushing on 14 carries with three TDs.
Beaver added three more touchdowns in the second quarter — a Braxton Albrecht 3-yard run, a 61-yard pass from Hollingshead to Walter LeBaron and a 13-yard run from Ryker Albrecht.
“For us to get where we want to go, we’ve got to be good, and we wanted to put a full game together tonight,” Marshall said. “At halftime, we talked about how we weren’t done.”
Albrecht scored on a 5-yard run in the third, and Cole Marshall ran one in from the 1 in the fourth quarter.
Beaver used junior varsity players and freshmen players to close out the win.
Freshman Hunter Carter got the final carry of the game — a 7-yard carry that pushed Beaver’s total yards to 504.
Beaver will face Delta in a state semifinal at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at Weber State University.