Savage Heat top Titans

HOT SPRINGS – The Hot Springs Savage Heat football team got their season off on the right foot last Saturday routing the visiting Tri-City Titans.

The Savage Heat’s home opener took place on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 6 with kick off taking place around 2 p.m.

The home team scored early and often and the contest was nearly decided by half time with both teams heading to the locker room with the score Hot Springs 32 and Tri-City 7.

This pressure would be kept up by Hot Springs throughout the second half as the Savage Heat coasted to a 57 to 13 win to open their fall season.

“Everything went pretty well for us. We set some goals and were able to accomplish them,” Hot Springs Head Coach Jim Lawson said.

Senior Running Back Matt Alt opened the scoring with a 48-yard sprint through the Titan defense, which served to set the pace for the rest of the game.

In their first six-man football game of the season, veteran leaders Tanner Hoff and Trevor Paro led Hot Springs.

Hoff who is a senior and the team’s quarterback led the Savage Heat’s fast paced spread offense, throwing for four touchdowns during the afternoon contest.

Paro a sophomore, contributed to the big victory by accumulating an impressive total of all purpose yards and breaking into the end zone for five touchdowns on Saturday afternoon.

Paro ended the day with 148 receiving yards, which he compiled on a total of four receptions.

In the passing game Hoff completed ten passes out of 15 airborne plays he attempted, a solid completion percentage for the first game of the year.

Hoff showed off his arm throughout the contest as the Savage Heat were able to strike from deep within their own side of the field throughout the game.

Hoff completed touchdown passes of 78 and 56 yards to Paro, while finding junior Jack Dolson for a 51-yard strike and senior Nate Grey for a 23 yard scoring conversion.

In total Hot Springs was able to put up 471 combined yards of offense.

The Savage Heat quarterback also made contributions on defense, where he plays linebacker.

Despite the big win Lawson said the players knew when they made mistakes and they are working hard to remove those from future competitions.

“The kids are surprisingly hard on themselves. I think they expect perfection,” Lawson said.

Hot Springs held Tri-City to only 177 yards of combined offense for two touchdowns.

During the defense’s strong performance Hoff tallied 12 tackles leading the line backing corps in shutting down the visiting Titans running attack.  

Lawson said no major changes were scheduled for practices this week but the Hot Springs coaching staff will continue to emphasize fundamentals.

“We will try to correct a few mistakes. Nothing major, focus on the little mistakes we made - missed assignments and missed gaps,” Lawson said.

Next up on the schedule for Hot Springs is a match up against the St. Regis Tigers at home.

The game versus St. Regis will be a junior varsity contest due to the fact St. Regis does not have a varsity squad.

Kickoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 8.