High School Football: Cubs 61, Rams 7
RIVERTON Humboldt has a simple formula for winning football games, get the ball and score early and often. Friday night the Cubs tallied their first touchdown with just 29 seconds elapsed: Connier Haviland ran for 17 yards, before Dagen Goodner burst about the goal line after keeping on an option and racing 38 yards.
The reason the Cubs are able to accomplish that with preposterous efficiency is that Coach Logan Wyrick has a stable of athletes, headlined by a handful but with depth that exceeds those needed at one time, 11 of offense and 11 on defense, by a healthy margin.
Friday night they gave Riverson a dose of the potion Wyrick has brewed, through structured preparation. The Cubs have reeled off six straight victories, including three in class 2A district play, and seem bound to reward their dedication with a journey into post-season play.
The home-standing Rams were the latest victim of the Cub express, falling 61-7 in a game shortened as all have been by a running clock in the second half, imposed by the states mercy rule thats meant to prevent even more mortifying defeats.
The final fit well with previous accountings. The Cubs have scored 343 points, yielded 26 and that probably would be zero if Wyrick were hard-hearted. He often, as early as the second period, sends reserves into the fray.
Once again it was Haviland, the fleet-footed junior tailback whose field vision must be several cuts better than 20-20, who led the scoring parade. He scored touchdowns on runs of 17, 10, 22, 6 and 20 yards and 54 on a pass (mostly a run after the catch), as well as two two-point conversions and, for the first time this season, a point-after boot.
Quarterback Goodner had the 36-yard jaunt for a TD and Coronado, who got the nod as signal-caller for better than two quarters, albeit two with a running block, capped a 64-yard drive late from the 1. Haviland, not to be excluded, got the scoring march started on a 28-yard dash between the 36-yard lines. He also returned a punt 70 yards for what would have been a touchdown had not one of the refs detected what he judged to be a block at the back of a Ram defender.
Kyler Allen, who demonstrated his worth again at cornerback by disrupting a couple of Ram passes, scored a TD on a 15-yard aerial from Goodner.
Humboldt piled up better than 400 yards about 180 coming in the first period from scrimmage on 32 plays.
Next Friday night Humboldt ventures into the Little Balkans as Crawford and Cherokee counties are known for the proliferation of eastern Europeans who flocked there more than a century ago to work the strip mines to play Northeast of Arma, which lost to Jayhawk-Linn 30-8 Friday night. Humboldt doused the Jay-hawks 73-0 at their place.
RIVERTON, to its credit, did total 39 yards for the game, all on the ground, which may have been the most Humboldts stalwart defense has allowed in one game on the ground this season.
However, 44 yards came in the lone series when the Rams managed to dent Humboldts goal line. That means Riverton lost five yards rushing the remainder of the game, and, to be truthful, never posed even a remote threat to reverse the course of the contest.
Much of that can be laid to Humboldts defensive line supported by energetic linebackers and secondary which occasionally had just three players in a three-point stance. Ram lineman didnt have an answer for David Watts though double-team him they did who had six or seven tackles for losses, nor for Joshua Hull, who also nailed a couple of runners in the backfield, and Tucker Hurst, who plays with unrestrained zeal.
We still have a few things to work on, Wyrick said, as the Cubs get close to playing each game for keeps as if they havent had that mindset since the season began. But, the calculating coach is wont to note that we have things to build on, frankly far more positives than most coaches.
Officially, Haviland had 10 carries for 156 yards, while Goodner, who exited the game with a couple of dings that he will have forgotten by Mondays practice, picked up 117 yards on eight carries, and completed four passes fo 94. Coronado added a completion to Jackson Aikins for 24 yards. Cooper Jaro and Ethan Doepke, a freshman, also had opportunities to accumulate yardage from the tailback slot.
