Hart Strikes Right Notes in 45-0 Rout of Palmdale

The Palmdale High band capped an odd halftime performance by stopping in mid-number and planting about 50 white crosses into the turf to make it look like a cemetery.

Long before that, however, Hart had already buried Palmdale, marching away with a 45-0 nonleague rout on Friday.

Quarterback Kyle Matter completed 23 of 38 passes for 313 yards and six touchdowns, and Hart took advantage of countless Palmdale miscues.

“We killed ourselves tonight,” Coach Jeff Williams of Palmdale said. “We’ve got to get a lot better than this.”

Palmdale (0-4), which lost to Hart (4-0) for the 10th consecutive time, allowed 408 yards and lost 50 on offense because of bad snaps from the shotgun formation.

Matter, who took over for graduated All-American Kyle Boller, is beginning to look like the school’s 15th consecutive All-Southern Section quarterback. Through four games, he has passed for 1,144 yards, 18 touchdowns and three interceptions.

He connected with eight receivers and threw four first-half touchdown passes, including two on fourth-down-and-long plays.

“He’s coming into his own,” Coach Mike Herrington said. “He’s making less and less mistakes.”

And capitalizing on others’ miscues.

Travis Nicol of Hart intercepted two Terry Furlow passes and the Indians recovered two poor long snaps to set up three of Matter’s scoring passes.

He connected with Jared Bazar for touchdowns of 28 and 11 yards, and also hit Joe Aloisi from 10 yards, Garrett Fuller from 38, Tim Gregory from 12 and Peter Dubsky from seven.

The six touchdown passes were one short of Boller’s school record set last season against Burbank.

Hart, ranked No. 3 in the region by The Times, led, 31-0, at halftime and, 45-0, after three quarters.

By then, Matter had gone to the sideline and the Palmdale band was playing the theme to Mission Impossible.

Less than 10 seconds after the game ended, the scoreboard was turned off.

Hart hardly missed receiver Chris Ciccone, who caught five touchdown passes in the first three games, and defensive end Evan Allen.

They were benched against Palmdale but Herrington wouldn’t say why.

The Indians next week play Loyola, the only team to defeat them on the field last season.

Hart’s overshadowed defense, which entered allowing 193 yards per game, limited Palmdale to 119 yards.

Furlow was on the run all game, completing only 11 of 27 passes for 81 yards and scrambling for 28 yards in seven carries.

Brent Trice rushed for 33 yards in five carries and sacked Matter twice.

Kirk Bardin of Hart kicked a 38-yard field goal late in the first half and six consecutive extra points, making him 20 for 20 this season.