SOUR LAKE – Jacoby Turner scored four touchdowns to lead Hardin-Jefferson to a convincing 41-14 win over Bridge City in the District 21-3A opener for both schools Friday night.

Turner led all rushers with 187 yards on 23 carries. He scored on touchdown runs of 18, 65, 10 and 20 yards. Quarterback Blake Venable added 71 yards on the ground and 56 through the air on three-of-five aim.

HJ dominated the line of scrimmage in rushing for 312 yards on 47 carries. The Hawks did not attempt a pass in the second half. BC had a more balanced attack, rushing for 128 and passing for 118.

The Hawks defense set the early tone, stopping BC on the game’s opening possession. Faced with fourth-and-six at the HJ 45, BC quarterback Josh Lemoine was sacked for a 15-yard loss.

HJ didn’t waste the good field position. Trey Burrell carried the ball twice for 26 yards, the second of which gave the Hawks a first down at the BC 11. Venable scored on the very next play with an 11-yard TD run to put HJ up 7-0.

After forcing BC to a three-and-out, HJ scored on its second possession. Turner did most of the damage, rushing four times for 34 yards. He capped the drive with an 18-yard TD run to put the Hawks up 14-0.

The Cardinals were forced to punt again after three downs. HJ received good field position after David Daniel partially blocked the punt, which went just 16 yards.

The Hawks put a sustained drive together that culminated in a 37-yard field goal by Stuart Flowers that made the score 17-0.

BC answered with its best drive of the first half. Matt Menard started the drive with a 12-yard run and added a 24-yard burst to the HJ 35. However, that’s were the drive stalled with Lemoine’s pass on fourth-and-eight from the 33 falling incomplete.

The Cardinals defense stepped up, forcing a Venable fumble that gave BC the ball at the HJ 43 with 51 seconds left in the half. Lemoine hit Luke Rhodes for 18 yards and followed with a completion to Grant Encalade that put the ball at the 11.

Lemoine scrambled to the 7 on first down. Lemoine threw behind an open receiver on a quick slant on second down. Dustin Breaux had the ball go through his finger tips at the goal line on third down.

Facing fourth down with just one second remaining in the opening stanza, the Cardinals elected to go for the touchdown instead of kicking a field goal. Lemoine threw high on the slant route as time expired, enabling the Hawks to take a 17-0 lead into the locker room at halftime.

“We ran a couple of plays and if we would have executed we would have scored,” said BC coach Cris Stump. “We missed a guy wide open, we dropped another one in the end zone and made a bad read on the last one. If we could have scored right there before halftime that would have been a big turning point.”

Instead, it was HJ that had the momentum coming out of the locker room at halftime and quickly doused any thoughts the Cardinals had of getting back in the game.

The Hawks received the ball to open the third quarter and Turner raced 65 yards for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage. He broke countless tackles, including getting nearly spun to the ground at the BC 45 only to regain his balance and race down the sideline.