Rather than friendly skies, Friday’s high school football game at Columbus turned into an ‘air disaster’ for the Boone Central Cardinals.
Host Scotus fueled a decisive second-quarter blitz by intercepting Boone Central passes on three straight possessions and ultimately scored a 41-20 victory over the Cardinals.
Boone Central, a handful of plays away from reversing fortunes in its first three losses of the season, played well early Friday before unraveling with the spate of turnovers.
Once the momentum swung to the Shamrocks, Boone Central could never turn it back.
“Not much to say – we didn’t show up with a good performance,” said Cardinal Coach Mark Hudson. “We actually executed the game plan well through the first 16 minutes. Then Scotus changed their defense to take away the outside run we were having success with. They also changed up their coverage, and that caused some confusion on reads.
“We have to learn to handle adversity better.”
Boone Central handled the Scotus defense adroitly at Friday’s start.
After receiving the opening kickoff, the Cardinals used a pass completion of 12 yards from Braden Benes to Ryan Kramer, then consecutive runs of 17 yards by Benes, and nine and 15 by Wyatt Nissen, to drive to the Shamrock 13, where Kramer’s 30-yard field goal attempt failed.
Scotus quickly gobbled up 70 yards in 11 plays, scoring on a two-yard run with 3:36 remaining in the first quarter. Not to be deterred, Boone Central struck back even more quickly as Nissen bolted 42 yards to paydirt and Kramer forged a 7-7 tie with the PAT.
The Card defense forced a Scotus punt and Benes culminated a 78 yard, 10-play march with an 18-yard touchdown dash. Kramer’s PAT put Boone Central in front 14-7.
Back came the Shamrocks with a 69-yard TD bolt and PAT, knotting the tally again.
Next, Boone Central disaster.
Benes had a third-down pass intercepted, followed by a personal foul mark-off to the Cardinal four-yard line. Two plays later Scotus went ahead 21-14 with a short touchdown run.
The Shamrocks then picked off a second Benes aerial and added a 38-yard field goal to complete a short 34-yard, five-play drive.
Rinse and repeat. Scotus intercepted another Benes pass attempt and struck with a 23-yard touchdown pass on the next play from scrimmage. PAT and 31-14 Shamrock lead with :19 remaining in the first half.
Kramer intercepted a pass for the Cardinals on the opening possession of the third quarter, but Boone Central was forced to punt and Scotus wasted little time expanding its lead. A 14-yard TD run concluded a 41-yard drive and put the ‘Rocks up 38-14.
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