Hough football dominates in Mint Hill, crushes Independence on the road

Kings of the Queen City, indeed.

Hough High’s football team solidified its place atop the Observer’s Sweet 16 rankings with a resounding 35-0 victory over No. 5 Independence on Friday night.

Led by quarterback Ethan Royal, defensive back Micah Wright and a stout Huskies defense, nationally ranked Hough (2-0) rolled through the Patriots (1-1) to a 28-0 halftime lead.

“We knew we were the better team,” said Wright, who had two interceptions — one he returned 43 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter. “We knew what we had to do. We came in, executed and got it done. We got the shutout.

“We knew we could do better than we did last week (a 14-10 victory over Rock Hill’s South Pointe at Bank of America Stadium). We knew we wanted to shut (Independence) out, and we wanted the offense to do better than it did last week.”

While the numbers put up by the Huskies’ offense were almost the same as their win over South Pointe, what they produced from them was considerably different.

Royal accounted for all four of Hough’s offensive touchdowns, throwing for two scores — a 52-yarder to Jayden White on the second play of the game, and a 22-yarder to Tyran Evans in the second — and running in a pair of 1-yard dives in the second and third quarters.

“We knew we didn’t play that well the first game, and we had to come out and set the standard up front, on both sides of the ball,” Hough head coach DeShawn Baker said. “They did a heck of a job tonight.

“We came out and wanted to put pressure on their quarterback, make them create turnovers, and offensively, we wanted to run the ball. We did a little bit of both.”

That the Huskies did — in addition to the two picks, Independence fumbled the ball once in suffering its first shutout loss since a 42-0 shellacking by Butler on March 19, 2021.

“That’s a good football team,” Patriots head coach D.J. McFadden said of Hough. “You make mistakes early in the game against a good football team and get down, you dig yourself a hole that you might not be able to climb out of.

“We’ve been talking about that all summer in practice, getting off to fast starts. Tonight, we got a humbling lesson, but it was good that it happened early in Week 2. Everything’s still in front of us, we’ve just got to get back to work.”

Three who made a difference

Ethan Royal, Hough — Finished with 123 passing yards, completing 9 of 14 attempts with two touchdowns, and ran for 31 yards and two TDs on eight carries.

Micah Bright, Hough — His two interceptions — the first a pick six, the second setting up a score — set the tone for the Huskies’ shutout win.

Hough’s defense — Led by Bright, the Huskies held Independence to 80 yards of total offense (54 passing, 26 rushing) and sacked Patriots quarterback Jared Street five times.

Observations

Hough has now won three straight over Independence to even the teams’ all-time series record at 4-4. The Patriots had won four of the teams’ first five meetings between 2011-2014 before Hough’s current streak.

Up next

Hough heads out of state for the second time this season next Friday, traveling to Virginia to play Highland Springs, which finished 9-5 and advanced to the regional final in the Virginia state Class 6 playoffs last season. Meanwhile, Independence will host area private school Charlotte Christian.

GAME SUMMARY

HOUGH 14 14 7 0 – 35

INDEPENDENCE 0 0 0 0 – 0

First Quarter

H — Ethan Royal 52 pass to Jayden White (Piercon Selland kick), 11:11.

H — Micah Bright 43 interception return (Selland kick), 0:38.

Second Quarter

H — Royal 22 pass to Tyran Evans (Selland kick), 6:19.

H — Royal 1 run (Selland kick), 1:39.

Third Quarter

H — Royal 1 run (Selland kick), 1:50.

This story was originally published August 29, 2025 at 9:01 PM.