It seemed like old times for Porters Chapel Friday night.

The Eagles’ offense had little trouble rolling through Franklin Academy while the defense held the Cougars to just 43 yards in total offense. It all added up to 42-0 blowout in the District 4-AA opener at Eagle Field.

For PCA coach Randy Wright, it was all about making progress.

&#8220We got better this week,” Wright said of his team that improved to 2-1 and takes an early lead in district play. &#8220We wanted to do well and execute on offense and we did that. We looked good when we got inside the 20.”

Quarterback Hayden Hales hit a pair of long touchdown passes of 55 and 43 yards and also directed two other first half scoring drives as Porters Chapel built a 35-0 halftime lead.

&#8220It was definitely a good night on both sides of the ball,” Hales said after finishing 3-for-5 for 110 yards passing and two touchdowns. &#8220I felt more comfortable in the pocket and found my receivers.”

The first was Cole Smith, who took a 10-yard slant pattern the rest of the way for a 55-yard touchdown. Michael Busby’s kick made it 14-0 with 6 minutes, 10 seconds left in the first quarter.

The second TD pass came early in the second quarter when Hales found Busby on a deep route for a 43-yard score.

&#8220Michael was supposed to run a curl but the defender was playing so far off of him, he just took it deep,” Hales said. The score, after Busby’s kick, made it 28-0.

The Cougars’ next possession lasted just a play as Busby picked off Adam Robertson’s pass and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown. Busby’s kick made it 35-0 with 9:32 left in the half.

The clock ran freely from that point on. Cody Ferguson capped the only scoring drive of the second half with a 2-yard TD run. Busby finished a 6-for-6 effort on PAT kicks for the 42-0 final.

Spencer Pell, who had 53 yards rushing on just five carries, scored the first PCA touchdown on a 3-yard run just two minutes into the game.

Moose Carney had a 1-yard TD with 2:36 to go in the first quarter after a bad punt snap by Franklin resulted in PCA recovering at the Cougar 16.

&#8220We had a good week of practice and realized we needed to have one after we got down ourselves last week,” Carney said of last week’s 29-0 loss at Central Private. He had 45 yards rushing and led the defensive effort for PCA.

Franklin (1-2, 0-1) tried to run a ball-controlled, wing-based offense against PCA but had little success. They had just four first downs and two of those came by penalty. Only one possession got past midfield and it ended in a fumble, one of three turnovers for the Cougars.