BLACK AND BLUE: Hun School football star Owen Black was patrolling the field in recent action. Last Saturday, senior Black returned a fumble for a touchdown to help key a bruising defensive effort as Hun defeated Peddie 40-13. Hun, now 7-0 overall and 4-0 Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL), plays at Mercersburg Academy (Pa.) on November 8 in its season finale. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

For the Hun School football team, the formula was simple as it looked to beat visiting Peddie last Saturday in a showdown for first place in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL).

“We wanted to come out and set the tone by running the ball, just establishing that we were going to own the line of scrimmage,” said Hun head coach Todd Smith.

Hun accomplished that goal, steamrollering through Peddie for three touchdowns in its first four possessions to build a 22-7 halftime lead.

“We did a good job with that, the kids came out running the ball,” said Smith.

“They were big, we were big but I think our big guys owned the trenches the majority of the game, right from the start. It opened up the play action pass for us later.”

Hun built on that opening surge and pulled away to a 40-13 triumph, improving to 7-0 overall and 4-0 MAPL as Peddie fell to 5-2 overall and 3-1 MAPL.

Post-graduate running back Imamu Mayfield took advantage of the line’s dominance, rushing for 160 yards and a touchdown and making two catches for 71 yards and another touchdown.

“He is like an extra blocker and runner at the same time,” noted Smith, referring to the 5’9, 210-pound Mayfield.

“If there is somebody not blocked, he usually does a good job of making them miss on his own. He gets his shoulder pads level down low; it is hard to tackle him. He just doesn’t go down on the first tackle. He had a fantastic day.”

Once the Raiders got the running game going, they mixed in some sharp passing to further bedevil the Falcons.

“We took our shots when we wanted, Simon (Vadas) was really accurate,” said Smith of his senior quarterback.

“He was 7-for-8 for 163 yards and four TDs so it was a really impressive day on his end. He also did a great job of managing the game. We changed the play on the line of scrimmage around 85 percent of the time in the game and he did a good job of getting us in and out of the huddle and getting us where we needed to be.”

As usual, the stingy Hun defense did a great job. “They were lights out, they played with a chip on their shoulder,” asserted Smith.

“They really wanted to show that no matter who we played against they were a quality defense. They came out and they did a great job. I think we had close to 15 plays where we tackled the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage. At the end of the day, they really didn’t gain that many yards in the game, less than 100 yards of total offense. Kyle Horihan had 18 tackles, nine solo and nine assists and Owen Black played phenomenal; he had the scoop and score for a touchdown. He was all over the place, he had about 10 tackles as well.”

The win over Peddie gave Hun at least a tie for the MAPL title as the Raiders clinched their second straight league crown.

“I think it is definitely the byproduct of all the hard work we put in,” said Smith, reflecting on the title repeat in his second year at the helm of the program.

“We are fortunate to get some really great players here at Hun but the bottom line is we just don’t rely on the natural talent. We truly want to coach the kids up, week in and week out and make them better football players. We make sure that they have great character and integrity; that leads to hard work and that hard work pays off in the wins.”

The Raiders will be looking for one last win this fall as they play at Mercersburg Academy (Pa.) on November 8 in their season finale, seeking a perfect campaign and the outright MAPL title.

“We gave the kids a couple of days off and we will bring them back in on Wednesday,” said Smith.

“We will get the kinks out; we will get back into the routine. Against Peddie we kept it pretty vanilla on offense. We just ran the ball and stayed in the two-back sets. We will get back to what we were doing pretty much every game before that, spreading it out and being a little more wide open.”