The Shawnee Mission West Vikings hosted the Shawnee Mission East Lancers on senior night in a high anticipated match up Friday October 21. The Lancers got off to a hot start scoring on their first play from scrimmage and never looked back. The final score was 54-0.
Senior running back Nigil Houston took the pitch on the first snap of the game around the right side before cutting back up the middle. Houston out ran the defense 68 yards for a touchdown.
“It’s always good to score on the first play of the game,” Shawnee Mission East head coach Dustin Delaney said. “Then the defense comes out and gets a stop.”
It looked like the game was going to live up to its billing when the Vikings marched down the field. However, the Lancer defense stood strong and held on fourth down at their own 21.
“They are a good team,” Shawnee Mission West head coach Tim Callaghan said. “When you can’t slow a team like that down and you can’t get yourself on track. I don’t think it was a total melt down on anybody’s part. They are good players too and they played better than we did tonight.”
Shawnee Mission West was able to move the ball on the Lancer defense. The Vikings ended up being stopped on fourth down on every drive of the first half often deep in Lancer territory.
“We just couldn’t punch it in,” Callaghan said. “They do a good job on defense. When it came time they bent, but they didn’t break.”
East would score on each of their five first half possessions going into the half up 33-0.
After the break SME would pick up right where they left off. The defense forced a punt on the Vikings opening possession. Then Milton Braasch took the handoff up the middle before cutting to the outside and beating the defenders to the goal line for a 46 yard touchdown on East’s first play of the half.
“I don’t think we punted tonight,” Delaney said. “It was a very efficient offensive night for us.”
The Lancers would add two more touchdowns before the game was done. Both teams await to see where they will be seeded in the upcoming playoffs.
“You want to be playing your best football come playoff time,” Delaney said, “and hopefully we are right now. Our kids know what the ultimate goal is and that is to win a state championship. You can’t do that unless you get better every single week.”
