PHOTO BY CHERI JAY-WIENECKE Hornet Charlie Wagner (2) attempts to hang onto the ball at all costs. Colter Burr bulldozed the competition last Friday.

With four minutes remaining in the first half and the score tied at 22-22, Lometa head coach Wendell Bradley decided to move his 6-0, 220-pound center to nose guard.

Despite having never played the position, Burr disrupted May's offense to the point that the Hornets were able to capitalize. Lometa posted 24 points on the board before the break to build a commanding lead the team never relinquished.

"[We] had him just plow into their center, and that kid got a little rattled," Bradley said. "They ended up only being able to take a snap from underneath the center because he'd snap it over [the quarterback's] head or at his feet. He couldn't shotgun snap or spread snap, and so they were having trouble all over."

Forced to take snaps under center, May's offense was limited and began turning the ball over under the relentless pressure, which gave the Hornets the advantage they needed to blow the game wide open.

PHOTOS BY CHERI JAY-WIENECKE Miguel Guerrero (14), James Reyna (18), Jose Acevedo (2) and another Hornet attempt to bring down a May ball carrier in the Hornets' 69-28 win last Friday. Lometa won 69-28 on the back of Burr's impressive 10-tackle, two-sack defensive debut.

"That completely changed the game," the coach said. "We just told him to go in there and act like you're blocking the guy, just rough him up. He went in and did what he knows how to do. He did a great job."

In the second half, the Hornets sealed the victory by showing off their running game, finishing the evening with 358 rushing yards on 29 carries.

Cody Brister led the way with 141 yards and two touchdowns. Dalton Parsons scored three times, posting 93 yards on the ground.

Although the Hornets had little reason to divert from a successful rushing attack, quarterback Charlie Wagner had an efficient outing, going 7 of 14 through the air for 51 yards and a pair of scores. Manuel Hernandez and Scott Hernandez caught the touchdown passes.

James Reyna (18) and Colter Burr (27) combine for the tackle. Defensively, Lometa (4-1) held the Tigers (0-5) to just 195 yards of total offense.

While Burr's performance was instrumental in the win, James Reyna led the squad with 13 tackles, three sacks and a fumble recovery.

The victory concludes a fourgame road trip for the Hornets who host Star tonight at 7:30 p.m. Lometa went 3-1 during the span and did a lot of maturing while away from home, according to Bradley.

"We've grown up a lot, and we've found a lot of things that different guys can do," he said of his relatively inexperienced squad.

Last week against Cherokee, Wagner emerged as a reliable quarterback, despite not playing the position since the seventh grade.

In the same game, nose guard Justin Nichols, who never played football until this season, broke out for four tackles, a sack and a safety. Receiver Felipe Nava opened the contest's scoring after not playing football since the eighth grade.

Then, against May, Burr's position switch opened the door for backup center Daniel Velez to display his abilities.

The Hornets swarm May's offense. Lometa took an impressive win at May last Friday night. "[Velez] being able to [perform at center] freed Burr up to play nose guard, which anchored our defense down the middle, which caused our defense to shut them down, which caused our offense to have more opportunities to score," Bradley said. "It's like one hand washes the other."

But the Hornets have a way to go. Bradley is still waiting to see his team dominate an opponent from start to finish and feels Star (1-3) provides an opportunity to do so, but he does not feel it necessarily will be easy.

"Star is not as good as they were last year when they had a real dominant player and, in six-man, when you have a real good one, you can beat a lot of people," Bradley said. "They lost him, but they are still a pretty good football team, and they're still going to come out and get after it.

"They're not going to let us roll over them because we're right down the road, and it's a rivalry."

Dalton Parsons works valiantly to get out of the hold a May player has on him. While Star won't let the Hornets simply "roll over" them, if Burr repeats his performance against May, they might not have a choice.

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In other Lometa football action last week, the junior varsity team lost to Richland Springs by 44 points, 50-6.

The middle school squads also struggled, going 1-2.

The eighth-grade "A" team lost 32-12 to May, but the eighth-grade "B" team defeated Victory Life by a score of 19-6. Lometa's seventhgraders were shut out by May 20- 0.