Back to all Features

It didn’t take long for Fort Osage to break in its new turf field Friday night against Raytown South.

After years of being one of the only, if not the only, higher class teams with a grass field, the Indians began the 2018 season with a new field but a similar result that they’ve been accustomed to over the years.

Dominic Myers caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ty Baker midway through the first quarter for a 6-0 lead and the Indians were off to the races, cruising to a 35-6 win.

“Ty and I had a bet who would get the first touchdown (on the new field). Boom, just so happened to be me,” Myers said with a laugh.

Fort Osage only needed to go 14 yards on that initial scoring drive after a bad punt, and after the Cardinals lost a fumble on their first play of the following drive, Baker scampered into the end zone from 5 yards out on the very next play for a 13-0 lead.

“You can’t put your defense in those kind of holes,” Raytown South head coach Nick Adkins said. “We had a bad punt and then the wheels were headed in the wrong direction.”

That would be more than enough points for the Indian defense. After allowing a first down on the opening drive, the defense only allowed two more first downs the rest of the half, and one of those was via a penalty.

Von Young IV was the defensive catalyst from his middle linebacker position, a new landing spot for him as of Monday.

“The way our defense works, we just fly around,” Young IV said. “I’ve played outside linebacker for three years, so it was a little different. When I can go side-to-side I can make more plays.”

And make more plays he did. He had two interceptions, the first of which came early in the second quarter and led to a Brandon Gregory Jr. 5-yard touchdown run a few plays later to make it 19-0.

“It starts with the defensive line. They did a great job,” Young IV said. “They got in the quarterback’s face and I came in behind and made the plays.”

Indians head coach Brock Bult felt Young IV would be more involved from the middle linebacker spot, and the move paid dividends right, even if it might have taken a drive or two for him to get comfortable.

“He was a little hesitant at first but then the light bulb went off,” Bult said. “He felt at home.”

The offense would put the finishing touches on a near-perfect first half, with a rushing touchdown from Blake Robertson and a receiving score for Richard Wiseman Jr. to make it 35-0.

The end result of the first half was five touchdowns from five different offensive players.

“We have a lot of weapons,” Bult said. “I wish we could play Canadian rules and get one more guy out there. We’ve got playmakers on the sideline, too.”

The Cardinal offense is working in a new offensive system and several new players, which added up to a difficult Week 1.

“We have to find a way to move the ball and move it more consistently,” Adkins said. “There’s going to be some nicks and a learning curve. We have a bunch of guys that haven’t played before.”

Raytown South will look to improve next week when they travel to Winnetonka, while Fort Osage will host Lee’s Summit West.