FERRIDAY, La. &045; That Adams Christian defense will get better.

How fast and how much better? There’s still 10 more games to determine that, and Friday’s 47-14 win over Huntington didn’t leave the Rebels feeling like they made a big turnaround on defense, but at least they’re heading in the right direction.

The Hounds piled up 245 yards running the ball and had success early, but AC came with some stops midway through to pull away.

&uot;That’s what we were sitting here talking about,&uot; AC head coach Keith Walters said. &uot;Defense is still our main point of emphasis. We’re still working on that. I thought we tackled a little bit better. But they did what we were worried about and controlled the ball. Their quarterback hurt us real bad.&uot;

The Rebels got some stops midway through and answered with some quick scores to turn a 6-6 tie at one point into a runaway later in the second half. After Huntington put together two clock-grinding drives in the first half, the Rebels got two turnovers and turned them into quick touchdowns to take control.

The Hounds’ three drives in the first half each featured at least 10 plays, but they got only four first downs the entire second half.

&uot;We finally moved around and had to adjust to what they had to run,&uot; defensive back Hunter Halford said. &uot;But overall I thought we did OK. They ran power-I on us pretty much the whole game to try to contain the ball. They tried to run the option and the quarterback keeper around the outside, but we picked up on it a couple of times.&uot;

AC stopped Huntington on its last drive of the first half on four and out at the Rebels’ 20-yard line, and AC took a knee to go into halftime with a 20-6 lead. The Rebels got first possession of the second half and went 66 yards on four plays for a score when Luke Ogden scored on a 14-yard run with 10:09 left for a 28-6 lead.

The Hounds got 11 yards on their first play from Trey Keith, but three plays later quarterback Adam Trevillion had a pass picked off by Dustin Case to kill the drive.

&uot;They’ve got an outstanding offensive and defensive team,&uot; Huntington head coach Hugh Hathcock said. &uot;I think they’ll do well this year. I don’t know how we’ll do, but our kids can only get better. We controlled the ball the first half and they didn’t get but a few plays, but it still turned out like that. Things didn’t fall our way. That’s the breaks, you know. We didn’t take advantage of some opportunities.&uot;

Case nearly returned the pick for a touchdown, but a penalty after the interception put the Rebels at the Huntington 43. From there they kept it on the ground and used a 30-yard run from David Barnes to set up a 4-yard run from Timmy Foster for a 34-6 lead with 6:57 left in the third.

The Hounds lost their next drive on downs near midfield, and the Rebels scored seven plays later when Cole Bradford ran in from 11 yards four for a 41-6 lead. By that time Ogden was out of the game for the younger players, but he registered 122 yards on eight carries with three touchdowns.

&uot;Probably they wore down a little bit, I would think,&uot; Walters said. &uot;Offensively, we’re doing OK. Everybody is so keyed up on Luke we’re wanting to put some things in with Dustin. We’re trying to throw it more. We have to be diversified. In the second half I thought our offensive line really played well.&uot;

The Hounds in the first half used a 10-play, 61-yard drive that lasted almost six minutes to score their first touchdown when Kyle Johnson scored from 1 yard out to tie it up at 6-6. On the Rebels’ following drive Ogden took the first handoff for 12 yards, had a score called back for a penalty that ended in a 32-yard run and finished the drive with a 7-yard run for a touchdown as time expired in the first quarter for a 14-6 lead.

Huntington controlled it well on its next drive, but on a fourth-and-long situation Trevillion was picked off by David Barnes that gave the Rebels the ball at the Hounds’ 31.

AC wasted no time as Case hit Ray Simpson on a 69-yard touchdown pass on the first play for a 20-6 lead with 6:17 left in the second.