BY BUDDY TABLER
Special to the Tribune
RUSSELL — Russell quarterback Trey Jones completed a trio of touchdown passes as the Broncos roared past the Larned Indians 52-0 in a non-league football game to entertain a happy Homecoming crowd.
Dominick Hernandez, Sam Thielen and Max Evans caught touchdown passes. Wyatt Harmon scored on 7- and 8-yard runs. Walker Middleton and Kolton Jones converted scoring runs.
Zorn continued his hot start with 15 of 22 passing for 216 yards.
A slow start turned into a Bronco route in the second quarter. After a 8-0 first quarter, Russell’s offense got in high gear at the 8:49 mark of the second quarter when Harmon pierced the Indian defense with an 8-yard touchdown run for a 16-0 lead.
Following a Larned fumble Zorn connected with receiver Max Evans on a 44-yard touchdown pass and a 24-0 lead.Russell quickly scored again to make it 31-0 and then the Broncos recovered the ensuing kickoff on Larned’s 28-yard line and on the next play Walker Middleton raced 28 yards for the score and a 38-0 lead which the Broncos took to the locker room at halftime.Meanwhile, the Larned offense was nowhere to be found as they could accumulate only two first downs and never penetrated the Russell end of the field in the first half.
Russell’s defensive line dominated the line of scrimmage and Larned could never mount anything resembling an offensive attack. Quarterback Mason Miller was constantly under pressure when the Indians tried to pass the ball. Larned’s first possession started out well after forcing Russell’s offense off the field on their first possession, the Indians completed a 9-yard pass from Mason Miller to Tristan Regan for an early first down but three plays later they were forced to punt.
In the third quarter, following an exchange of punts, Russell returned a Larned punt to the Indian 7-yard line and Harmon again scored on a dash up the middle for a 45-0 lead.With 9:55 remaining in the fourth quarter, Russell’s Kolten Jones squirted around the end from five yards out and with another successful extra point kick, Russell had a 52-0 lead which turned out to be the final score.
Larned struggled offensively all evening as they totaled only four first downs and a negative total offensive yardage due to big losses on a couple of plays. Russell piled up 216 yards of passing and 156 yards of rushing to dominate the game statistics as they improved to 4-0 for the season, their best start since 2000.
Larned’s record dropped to 0-4 and they will travel to Cimarron on Friday for a 2A District contest. Cimarron downed Lakin this past Friday 31-7 to even their record for the year at 2-2.
Larned 0 0 0 0 — 0
Russell 8 30 7 7 — 52
R—Dominick Hernandez 8 pass from Trey Zorn (2 pointer); R—Sam Thielen 41 pass from Zorn (2-pointer); R—Wyatt Harmon 8 run (2 pointer); R—Max Evans 44 pass from Zorn (2-pointer); R—Walker Middleton 28 run; R—Harmon 7 run (kick); R—Kolton Jones 5 run (kick)
