This was a very good game for the Hart offense, a spectacular first half for Thomas Kyle of Burroughs and a sometimes superb and sometimes awful game for the Hart defense. And penalties kill (just ask Thomas Kyle).

The first minute and thirty seconds of this game were about as bizarre as you will see.

Hart took the opening kickoff and Howell returned it 20 yards to the 30. On the first play, Lyon was in the shotgun and a little defensive end on Burroughs came flying around the right side and knocked the ball out of Lyon’s hand as he was looking down the left side of the field. FUMBLE! Burroughs recovered on the Hart 31. Hart had possession for under 10 seconds.

On the second play of the game, the Burroughs QB, operating from the shotgun, found himself confronted with a covey of blitzing Hart linebackers. He rolled right, got hit and fumbled. Hart recoverd at the Hart 40. Burroughs time of possession: about 6 seconds.

Hart series: run by Howell for 45, run by Howell for 13 and run by Howell (Lyon under center) for 2 and the touchdown. Hart 7-0 at 10:44.

Hart kicked off and a 12-yard return by Kyle put the ball at the 19. Hart had two of the linebackers swapping positions during the snap count and then one blitzed. Thomas Kyle went flying by him and the rest of the Hart defense and scored on an 81-yard run. 7-7 at 10:24.

Hart started the next series at the 21. First play: Howell ran for 25 yards. Note that to this point in the game, every play had been a first down play. Lyon threw his first pass, an incomplete followed by a nice mix of 5 runs and 3 straight completions, all to Embree, the last being a 14- yard TD pass to Embree. The PAT missed and it was Hart 13-7 at 6:34 in the first.

Burroughs started at the 20: run by Kyle for -1, incomplete and then ANOTHER 81-yard by Kyle for a touchdown. However, on possibly the stupidest penalty I’ve seen in a couple of years, Burroughs got called for a block in the back. There is no question the kid committed an illegal block. I was looking right at him at the time and it got flagged by at least two refs. The stupid part is that it was 20-30 yards behind the play. The entire Burroughs team could have laid down and Kyle still would have scored. Anyway, the 81-yard run became a 37-yard run. Burroughs eventually got to the Hart 25 and missed a field goal.

Hart started at the 20. The first pass was to Davis (his second reception of the year) for 13. On the second play, Lyon gave a great fake and ran for 12 around the left end. The third play he danced out of a possible sack and passed to Yudin for 7. He got flushed on the next play but gained 9, followed by an incomplete and then a run by Howell for 15 and then another run by Lyon for 4.

That ended the first quarter. You may notice a couple of names missing so far. Casselberry apparently had a foot or ankle injury and though dressed, never played (he missed most of last week too). James Wheeler sat out the entire first quarter. One suspects some disciplinary issues.

Wheeler came in on the first play of the second quarter and gained 1-yard on a pass from Lyon. On the next play, he got another pass from Lyon for a TD which was negated by a hold. Lyon followed that with a 37-yard pass to Yudin on a long crossing route for a TD. Hart 20-7 at 11:06.

Burroughs went three and out.

Hart got a nice return from Wheeler and started at the Burroughs 40. A 13 yarder to Yudin, a 3-yard run by Wheeler and the 16 and 4 yard runs by Howell and Hart was up 28-7 (2-point PAT on a pass to Viro) at 7:47.

Burroughs: Thomas Kyle had a huge return on the kickoff, about 50 or 60 yards, only to have it nullified by an illegal block. Thereafter: 4 and out.

Hart started at the 26: run by Howell for 5, pass to Yudin for 19 plus 15 for a late hit, run by Howell for 3, run by Howell for 4, run by Lyon on a sneak for 4, pass to Yudin for 14, incomplete (caught out of bounds in the endzone by Wheeler) then a 10-yard pass to Yudin for the TD. Hart 35-7 at 3:14.

Burroughs: 4 and out, including a 15-yard loss on a sack.

Hart started a the Hart 41 with 1:43 to go in the half: incomplete, screen pass to Howell for 22, run by Lyon for 4 (flushed), then pass to Yudin for 33 and the TD. Hart 42-7 with 40.5 seconds left.

Then came a series that must set Coach 2's teeth on edge. Hart tried an onside kick (I think to prevent Kyle from getting the ball more than anything else). Burroughs recovered and started at the 46: run by Kyle on a draw for 3, run by the QB after being flushed for 21. Agh!!!. Then, after Hart called time out, a sort of Hail Mary pass to the endzone with about a half dozen Hart defenders waiting for it. It was caught by Kyle, the shortest guy on the field and it was 42-14 Hart at the half.

The Hart stats were phenomenal in the first half. Lyon was 13 of 17 for 212 yards and 4 TDs. Delano Howell had 149 yards rushing on 13 carries and 2 TDs. Lyon also had 37 yards on 6 carries. Wheeler had 3 on 1 carry. That’s 401 yards in one half. That’s more than Hart has totaled on offense in any one game this year. No sacks. No INTS. No runs for a loss. The sole offensive negative was the fumble on the first play.

Burroughs stats were a little weird. In the first quarter Burroughs had 129 yards rushing on 6 plays and but for the idiot penalty, it would have been 173 yards. Burroughs had only 4 yards passing in that quarter on 1 of 3 attempts. In the second quarter Hart looked to have completely shut down Burroughs. Kyle had on 9 yards on 4 carries and the QB was -15 on 1 carry and had only 41 yards passing on 4 of 7 attempts. Then came that last drive as time expired. Burroughs finished the half with 142 yards rushing on 12 carries and 1 TD. The QB was 6 of 11 for 75 yards and a TD.

Burroughs took the second half kick off and started at the 30 (15 more return yards for Kyle): 12 yard run by Klye, pass for 6 and then an interception by Cannon.

After a personal foul penalty at the end of the return, Hart got the ball on the Burroughs 30: pass to Wheeler for 29 (the kid just couldn’t quite get to the endzone tonight), the run by Howell for 1 and the TD. Hart 49-14 with 10:03 in the third.

Burroughs: 3 and out.

Hart started at the Hart 43: run by Howell for 1, incomplete, a bizarre two-penalty play where Hart got hit with an 19-yard penalty for holding but Burroughs got hit with a 15-yard penalty late hit on a receiver which netted into a 4-yard loss and a repeat of down. Pass to Yudin for 12, another penalty, run by Howell for -4 (the first loss of the night), pass to Howell on a screen for 31, pass to Yudin for 10, incomplete, run by Howell for 3, incomplete and then a 20-yard field goal. Hart 52-14 at 4:12 in the third.

Hart tried another short kick and Burroughs let it drop. Hart recovered at the Burroughs 34. Lyon came out but Howell stayed in for 1 play, a 1-yard run. Thereafter it was subs for Hart. Hart got down to the 4 (the big play being a 21-yard by Wheeler) and then kicked a field goal to end the Hart scoring at 55-14 at 11:56 in the fourth.

Burroughs scored on the next series, largely with subs to make it 55-21 at 7:02.

Hart went 3 and out. Burroughs went 4 and out and Hart ran two plays to end the game.

Comments: Hart’s offense had the fumble to start the game and then scored on 9 straight possessions. Hart’s only punt was late in the fourth quarter. In other words, the offense was running on all cylinders despite the absence of Casselberry for the whole game and Wheeler for the first quarter.

Lyon finished the night at 17 for 22, 294 yards and 4 TDs. No INTs and no sacks. He also had 37 yards rushing. Howell finished with 151 yards rushing on 18 carries and 3 TDs. He also had 32 yards on returns and 53 yards on 2 receptions for a total of 241 all purpose yards. Yudin had 9 catches for 155 yards and 3 TDs. Wheeler had 2 catches for 30 yards. Embree had 3 for 43 and a TD. Davis had 1 for 13. Wheeler also had 26 yards on 3 carries and about 50 return yards. Pettee was 1 for 2 for 3 yards as a sub. He had 7 yards on 3 carries and Davis had 12 yards rushing on 3 carries.

On offense, I’ve gotten the feeling for the last 3 weeks that Hart has been holding back, leaving out and disguising plays in anticipation of the next big league games. There is no question that there are several plays I would expect to see out of certain formations that have not been tried or have not shown up in several weeks.

It also is obvious that there has been a lot of experimentation on defense, again in anticipation of later games.

Next week at Valencia.