The road trip was short and the venue was familiar. The night the game was played wasn’t.

Wednesday night football was not a problem for the Port Arthur Memorial Titans.

“It was great,” senior running back Elijah Hines said. “We went out and dominated. We came back from the hurricane and put on for our city.”

Beating Beaumont Central at the Thomas Center meant a lot for the Titans (1-0 overall and in 22-5A). Three weeks ago, many of them had to evacuate their homes, uncertain whether they would play football this season.

Tuesday night, the Titans will host a housewarming of a different sort when Ozen (1-0 overall and in 22-5A) visits Memorial Stadium.
“Everybody’s excited,” said Hines, who scored the Titans’ first two touchdowns as they raced to a 21-0 lead in a 35-6 win. “All our fans can come out and see us dominate Ozen.”

Ozen is a little different from the team Memorial blanked 62-0 almost exactly a year ago. The Panthers, 1-9 last year, are off to a 1-0 start after a 28-16 home win over Baytown Lee.

The Panthers had two 100-yard rushers in senior quarterback Dominique Morris and sophomore running back Ja’Marion Eaglin, the latter getting 30 of his on a 90-yard touchdown sprint. Ozen also held Lee to 253 total yards.

“Anytime you get to have an offseason with your program, your program will be better from that standpoint, compared to coming in your first year and trying to get everything done,” Memorial coach Kenny Harrison said, referring to second-year Ozen coach Edward Taylor’s impact on the team.

The Titans had to fight to through two scoreless periods against Central after the fast start and totaled only 245 yards. They also struggled through 11 penalties for 105 yards.

“That was our first time to play 48 minutes,” Harrison said. “That’s some of the things you iron out during non-district and scrimmages. Unfortunately we didn’t have that, so we had to learn on the run about some of the mental mistakes our kids made playing a full 48 minutes. We emphasized a lot of the things that went wrong in the scrimmage and that first ballgame, and we practiced it and worked on it. The plan is to get better each week.”

Harrison is still trying to find the right starting unit for his offensive line, which was returned only two starters from last year. He was happy, however, that the Titans managed to improve and still win by almost 30 points at the same time.

“Anybody who’s an offensive coach understands the continuity as well as your offensive line jelling and playing together takes time,” Harrison said.

In what is otherwise Week 5 of the UIL football schedule, Harrison reminded his bunch that every team in District 22-5A is coming back from an historic tropical storm, but the key to earning another district title is gaining an edge over the others.

“You want to get that edge; you just got to make sure you do it and do it on a consistent basis,” Harrison said.
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I.C. Murrell: 549-8541. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews

**CORRECTS last year’s score**