Playing before a large crowd and nationally television ESPNU audience, Harrell was polished, poised and on-the-money as he shined brightest in a game full of stars on both sides.
Among the brightest was Auburn-bound running back
Armoni Goodwin, who rushed for 152 yards including touchdown runs of 58 and 25 yards for Hewitt-Trussville in defeat. But other than those two runs, the Thompson defense bottled up the fleet, powerful back.
Thompson coach Mark Freeman promised Harrell would have no problem replacing current Auburn freshman Sawyer Pate, who led the Warriors last season to their first state title since 1982. Before that, Thompson featured Taulia Tagovailoa under center.
The lineage of quarterbacks have been impressive of late at Thompson.
In his fifth varsity start, Conner Harrell threw for more than 300 yards with four touchdowns in leading Thompson to a 35-21 win over host Hewitt-Trussville.
Photo by Brandon Sumrall
But the way Harrell performed Friday, he might end up the most sought after. The junior received his first FBS offer from Tennessee earlier in the week. After Friday's performance — 13-of-20 passing for 315 yards — more offers likely will be arriving.
All Freeman and the Warriors care about is they are 5-0 and turned around its only loss of the last season, a 35-29 home defeat to Hewitt-Trussville. Both teams entered with 4-0 records.
Harrell showed his stuff from the start after the Huskies were stopped on 4th-and-1 on the game's first possession on their own 31. Hewitt-Trussville held for three downs, but on 4th down, Harrell rolled left and fired a 31-yard touchdown strike to
Tre Roberson, making it 7-0 with 9:55 left in first quarter.
The Huskies answered with
Omari Kelly taking a short pass from
Cade Carruth before slipping down the right sideline 13 yards for a game-tying score. A 28-yard run by Goodwin set up the score.
Auburn-bound running back Armoni Goodwin rushed for 152 yards and scored twice for Hewitt-Trussville.
Photo by Brandon Sumrall
Harrell scrambled out of the pocket and whipped a 6-yard scoring strike to
Ryan Peppins with 11:12 left in the second to give his team a 14-7 edge, then watched
Jarrett Crockett cap a long drive with a 5-yard TD run, making it 21-7 with 7:36 left in the half.
Sean Jackson, a rugged, 5-10, 210-pound senior back who compliments the speed of Goodwin, returned the ensuing kickoff 50 yards. On the next play, Goodwin took a pitch and exploded for a 25-yard touchdown, going virtually untouched, making it 21-14 with 7:17 left.
The Huskies had a golden chance to tie the score, recovering the muffed ensuing kickoff, but the drive went nowhere, giving the ball back to Harrell, not a good idea.
He showed off the sheer strength of his arm, firing a perfectly placed 66-yard touchdown bomb to Peppins, giving the Warriors a two-touchdown cushion, 28-14, with 5:35 left in the half.
Thompson running back Jarrett Crockett finished with over 100 yards rushing and scored on a 5-yard run.
Photo by Brandon Sumrall
After a three-and-out, Harrell fired his fourth touchdown pass of the half, again scrambling before finding a wide open
Sam Reynolds on a 38-yard strike that bumped the Warriors' lead to 35-14 at intermission. By then, Harrell was an almost perfect 9-for-11 passing for 263 yards.
At halftime, Hewitt-Trussville made some superb adjustments on defense. In the meantime, Goodwin broke off a 65-yard touchdown run to close to 35-21 with 3:35 left in the third quarter.
After holding Thompson on two three-and-outs, the Huskies had a chance to cut the lead to a touchdown. But Goodwin, who missed almost all of 2019 with a knee injury, was stripped of the ball by
EJ Edwards, who also recovered it, at the Thompson 18.
Crockett, who rushed for more than 100 yards, helped run out the clock from there.
Receiver Sam Reynolds scores on a 38-yard touchdown reception for Thompson.
Photo by Brandon Sumrall
