Slow out of the starting gates, the Holy Innocents' offense later went from zero to 50 in not much over two quarters of play in a 50-7 win over visiting Mt. Paran in the opening round of state Friday night at Riverwood.
 
With the win, Coach Nick Perrotta's squad (8-3) will travel to Athens to take on Athens Academy next Friday at 7:30.
 
"Good teams find a way to win," Perrotta said afterwards. "Did we start out slow, yes. Did we shoot ourselves in the foot early, yes. But we went in at halftime, came out and scored three times in only three plays. This is a team that is built for a good playoff run."
 
It went down like this: With 4:06 left in the first half, it was scoreless before Denim Stevens finished a TD drive that was all Denim Stevens, as he ran the ball six times covering all 53 of the yards which started the dominating tear.
 
On the next possession, Ryan Woods hit Sam Chasteen for a 42-yard scoring strike on only the third play of the 54-yard drive.
 
The third period saw HI touch the ball three times and score three TD's, the first when Woods hit Brayden Bailey for a 55-yard strike on the slant on the opening play of the quarter. After an Eagle three-and-out, Bennett Burroughs returned the punt to the Mt. Paran 17 before Woods hit Kai Worthy for the score on the first play from there.
 
The Bear defense again forced a quick Paran punt and, this time, Woods hit Jake Berte for a 55-yard TD, again on the first play to put HI up 36-0.
 
Perrotta's team would tack on two more TD's, one on an 84 yard kick-off return for a score from Bailey, the second on a Woods 12-yard run. Mt. Paran's score came on the first play of the final period on a hook and later for a long TD.
 
Looking at the whole picture, A.J. Donnelly had two interceptions, Chasteen had another. Other defensive standouts were Burroughs, Miller Wimberly, Bailey, Finn Ferrero, and Myles Jackson to name only some.
 
On special teams, both Mitchell Bainbridge and Hudson Stephens combined to be perfect on extra points.