Hough handles Cardinal Gibbons, shifts to Providence Day

MATT LACZKO | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Hough High quarterback Ethan Royal passed for four touchdowns and ran for another in the Huskies' 35-10 win against Cardinal Gibbons at Bank of America Stadium on Aug. 29, 2026. Hough, No. 1 in The Post's Magnificent Seven,  improved to 2-0.

Hough High’s offense has awakened.

The Huskies — No. 1 in The Post’s Magnificent Seven rankings — struggled in week one to get going on offense. No such troubles were found in week two – a 35-10 rout of Cardinal Gibbons. 

Hough (2-0) quarterback Ethan Royal, who accounted for five touchdowns (four passing), said the season-opening 15-10 win against Rock Hill Northwestern was a fluke offensive performance.

“I just told them that wasn’t us,” said Royal, a Marshall commit. “We have to play the game the way we play it. We practice Monday through Thursday lights out, and if we don’t do it on Friday then it’s [no good]. So, we just worked on it this week with tempo, and we came out and dominated.”

Hough coach DeShawn Baker said that he feels if the Huskies can get the offense going early, it establishes rhythm for the defense as well.

“Offensively, we came out, ran the ball early on the first drive,” he said. “Ethan threw the ball really well, read the defense really well, and took it down and scored on the first drive. And once we do that, if we score before our defense is going to feel like it’s going to be a long night, or if our defense comes out and gets a stop and we score, it’s going to be a long night [for the opponent].”

Baker feels Hough has the makings to be extremely special from a historical perspective if they continue to clean up the little things.

“The sky’s the limit for this team,” Baker said. “You know, once we get rolling, everybody hits on all cylinders, and our offensive line gets going… I thought they got better this week than they were last week for sure, but you got to keep trusting the process. We still have a lot of stuff we need to clean up, especially goal line stuff. We have to clean it up. I thought that’s what we kind of did really well last year within the red zone, goal line area. We scored the majority of the time.”

Hough will host Providence Day (2-0), one of the best private schools in North Carolina and MaxPreps’ 71st ranked team in the country next week. Hough is ranked 17th in the nation. Baker understands the challenge Providence Day will present, but he plans on going through the same routines to get his team ready.

“[The key] is going to be execution,” Baker said. “They’re a really good team; they have athletes all over the field as well, but I think we’ve got tempo, so we’ve got to get up and down the field. One advantage that I think we do have is that they go both ways a lot and we’re going to use our tempo and get on the ball, set the ball and go quick to get them out of rhythm. I think that is going to be the biggest key.”

Royal is confident that if Hough plays to ability, it won’t be close.

“I'll start thinking about that game when we game plan tomorrow morning,” he said. “I just feel like if we come out there and do as we should and play Hough football, it's not going to be close.”

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