BY BUDDY TABLER
Special to the Tribune
ANDALE — Make it 21 straight victories for the Andale Indians as they were as good as advertised as they thrashed the Larned Indians Friday 74-7 in the 3A football playoffs.
Andale, the defending 3A state champion, continued a season in which they have dominated most opponents and move into Regional play against Clearwater who gave them their closest game of the season, a 40-21 loss.
Larned opened the game by kicking off and pulled off a surprising onside kick which they recovered at midfield.
However, that turned out to be a rare highlight as Andale's defense delivered four-and-out. Kelby Eck scored on a 39-yard touchdown run and a 2-point conversion run had Andale up 8-0. A safety and a 16-yard touchdown run by Eli Rowland led to 16-0 score with 7:00 remaining in the first quarter.
Larned mishandled several kickoff attempts during the first two quarters which continuously put their offense in a hole, inside the ten- yard line. That, plus some stellar play by the Andale defense left Larned staring at a 30-0 deficit after the first quarter and any doubts of an upset had evaporated.
“We had hoped to get off to a good start but we were not able to convert a first down after recovering the onside kick," said Larned coach Tad Remy. "Our mistakes on their kickoffs put us in a hole and we never recovered.”
After Andale had pushed their margin to 53-0, Larned mixed good runs by Logan Erway and key receptions by Luke Wilson to get inside the 5-yard line of Andale. Wilson scored on a 2-yard pass reception from Dillan Smith. Fernando Herrera conversion kick made it 53-7 with 34 seconds left in the half.
Andale tacked on another touchdown with 2 seconds remaining on Rowland 7-yard touchdown run. Andale’s freshman female kicker, Marlo Sullivan kicked her second conversion kick for a 60-7 halftime advantage.
Andale would score two more touchdowns in the second half on a 6-yard touchdown run by Noah Meyer and a 2-yard run by Meyer and Andale had a 74-7 victory as reserves from both teams finished out the game with a running clock in the fourth quarter.
Noah Meyer scored five touchdowns and Eli Rowland four touchdowns as the productive Andale ground attack produced 386 yards rushing. Larned’s Dillan Smith completed 11 of 17 passes for 106 yards but the Indian ground attack sputtered under the quick line play of Andale and produced only 46 yards rushing.
Larned (2-6) ended with wins over Bluestem and Hugoton. Andale (9-0) plays Clearwater as the Indians pursue their second consecutive state championship.
