Huston’s 700+ passing yards propel Glendale to district title

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By Nolan Epstein

Springfield, MO – You can let all the superlatives fly when trying to describe Glendale quarterback Alex Huston’s performance on Friday, but it’s very likely that none of them will do it justice.

Playing on the biggest stage of his high school career, the junior gunslinger put on his best show yet as Huston amassed an unbelievable 366 passing yards in the first quarter alone to lead the top-seeded Falcons (11-0) to an eventual 85-44 victory over the No. 2 seed Ozark Tigers (8-3) in the Class 5, District 4 title game.

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Huston was responsible for all seven (yes, seven) touchdowns over the first twelve minutes of play – throwing for five and scampering in for two more to put Glendale up by a count of 49-9 by the time both teams switched sides of the field for the second period.

The scary part? For most of Glendale’s players, this didn’t seem too out of the ordinary.

“It wasn’t a whole lot different,” Falcons senior wideout Luke Montgomery said when asked about Huston’s performance compared to other games. “In practice, he’s very accurate and he has a good arm. At this point, we have a lot of good chemistry. The whole team does.”

Huston completed 17 of 26 passes in the quarter, including a 50-yard touchdown strike to Montgomery as time expired en route to cementing a gaudy 715-yard performance on the night that saw him throw for nine TDs on 33-of-49 passing.

“To be honest, I really thought our offensive line did a really good job of protecting him,” Glendale head coach Mike Mauk said of Huston. “Ozark has some very fine defensive players and they’ve played great defense all year long, so we knew we were going to get pressure. He’s able to get that protection from the offensive line, avoid a few sacks, and then our receivers are able to get open.”

Glendale’s early scoring onslaught was largely aided by a pair of Ozark fumbles and three consecutive recovered onside kicks by the Falcons. When asked about his decision to execute a series of onside kicks late in the first quarter, Mauk was simple and straightforward with his reasoning.

“We wanted to try to keep the ball away from [Ozark] as much as we could,” said Mauk. “It gave us momentum and I thought it put separation between us that we needed because they’re very difficult to defend and stop as well.”

Four of Glendale’s first seven scoring drives were finished in four plays or less – giving the Tigers fits on defense and leaving them in similar territory that every other Glendale opponent has been in this season.

“We had a lot of things that didn’t go Ozark’s way in that first half and they can expose you that fast,” Ozark coach Chad Depee said of Glendale. “That’s why they’re a good ball club.”

After a 2-yard score by Ozark’s Jack Hulse cut the lead to 71-37 with 7:44 remaining in the game, Huston re-entered the contest after coming out at halftime and threw his final two touchdown passes to once again remove any doubt about the outcome.

The win for the Falcons also served as a measure of redemption for a rough 2013 loss to Ozark in the first round of district tournament play – a year in which Glendale secured just one victory and the last season before Mauk took over the reigns.

“We were just thinking about that and that was my freshman year,” added Montgomery, who caught a TD pass and also reached the endzone on the ground. “The turnaround that we’ve had has been crazy since Coach Mauk got down here.”

Despite coming out on the short end, Ozark will still be able to bask in its own turnaround as the Tigers saw an eight-win improvement from 2015.

“We came out here and gave them our best shot,” Depee said, who’s in his second year as head coach of the Tigers. “We came from a season a year ago that was rough. For these guys to believe that we could even come in and play for a district championship a year ago, it’s amazing.”

Glendale advances to play Ft. Zumwalt North (10-1) in the state quarterfinal round next Friday in Springfield.

Glendale 85, Ozark 44

Ozark 9-14-0-21 – 44

Glendale 49-22-0-14 – 85

First quarter

Glendale – Almeida 52 catch from Huston (kick good)

Glendale – Huston 5 run (kick good)

Glendale – Huston 19 run (kick good)

Ozark – Safety (bad snap into endzone on Glendale punt attempt)

Ozark – Hulse 2 run (kick good)

Glendale – Leali 54 catch from Huston (2-point conv good)

Glendale – Oeser 45 catch from Huston (2-point conv good)

Glendale – Leali 13 catch from Huston (2-point conv no good)

Glendale – Montgomery 50 catch from Huston (2-point conv no good)

Second quarter

Ozark – Harrold 40 run (kick good)

Glendale – Almeida 32 catch from Huston (2-point conv good)

Ozark – Bonewell 2 run (kick good)

Glendale – Montgomery 5 run (kick good)

Glendale – Nichols 12 catch from Huston (kick good)

Fourth quarter

Ozark – Larkin 33 catch from Hulse (kick good)

Ozark – Hulse 2 run (kick good)

Glendale – Oeser 49 catch from Huston (kick good)

Ozark – Harrold 62 run (kick good)

Glendale – Nichols 62 catch from Huston (kick good)

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