LARNED — In a game dominated by momentum exchanges, the Larned High School Indians finally closed the door on Nickerson with an interception by Evan Skelton on the Larned 35-yard line, enabling the Indians to defeat the Nickerson Panthers 33-25 at Earl Roberts Field on Friday evening.
Larned kicked off the game and held Nickerson to a quick 3-and-out on their first possession and following a short punt took over on the Nickerson 42.
Behind a bruising rushing game, the Indians quickly moved to the goal line and with 6:54 remaining in the first stanza, quarterback Trey Kraisinger scored on a 1-yard dive. The extra point kick by David Valadez was no good and the Indians led 6-0.
Following another stalled offensive attempt by Nickerson, Larned took over on their own 49-yard line and quickly rushed the ball behind Landon Erway and Jeromy Bartz to the 15 of Nickerson where on a fourth-and-one, Erway burst up the middle for a score at 9:05 of the second quarter.
Following the successful kick by Valadez the Indians led 13-0 and had all of the momentum.
With 5:32 remaining in the first half, Nickerson seized the momentum on a 42-yard pass to Wyatt Henson to the Indian 17 that was followed a few plays later by a 2-yard touchdown from Panthers quarterback Braden Stewart to Ethan Belden.
Following a failed kick for the conversion, Nickerson had narrowed the deficit to 13-6.
In the second quarter, the Larned offense became stagnant and they had to punt on two occasions.
With 1:06 left in the half, an errant Indians pass was intercepted by Nickerson’s Ethan Belden.
Following two nice completions, Nickerson had used their passing game to move to the 22-yard line and with 10 seconds remaining, Austin Caswell kicked a 32-yard field goal making the score 13-9 at halftime.
The second half started like the first half and Larned wrested the momentum back their way as they rode their potent running game downfield and with 10:01 remaining in the third quarter, Bartz scored on a 23-yard run.
Following the successful conversion kick by Valadez, Larned had the momentum and a 20-9 lead that had the Larned crowd feeling more comfortable.
That comfortable feeling didn’t last as Nickerson’s Austin O’Toole, a 180-pound sophomore running back scampered 66 yards to paydirt with 2:53 remaining.
The Panthers attempted to pass for a 2-point conversion but failed.
The back-and-forth momentum shifts continued when. with 1:43 remaining in the third quarter, Larned’s Tyler Stelter picked off a Nickerson pass and ran 62 yards for a score, and following a conversion kick, led 27-15.
Once again, the momentum shifted as Nickerson’s Casey Goble sped to the 2-yard line with 8:00 left in the fourth quarter, followed by a 2-yard touchdown run by quarterback Braden Stewart. The kick pulled the Panthers within 27-22, but that didn’t last long as Larned’s Erway broke a 63-yard touchdown run with 6:59 remaining.
Following a failed kick, the Indians had the momentum back and a 33-22 lead and both ball clubs were struggling to stop the other.
With 2:48 remaining, Nickerson’s Caswell toed through a 28-yard field goal, pulling the Panthers within striking distance at 33-28.
The final two minutes were more of the momentum shifting as Larned fumbled away a scoring drive on the Nickerson 12-yard line, and the Panthers promptly moved into Indians territory with a couple of pass completions.
Finally, with 24 ticks left on the clock, Larned’s Skelton intercepted a Stewart pass on the Indians 35-yard line and Larned was able to run out the clock before a happy but fretful Larned Homecoming crowd.
Behind Erway’s 170-yard rushing night, the Indians amassed 320 yards rushing.
Nickerson was not able to run the ball much, gaining only 121 yards, but their passing offense was potent on 17 of 44 for 242 yards by quarterback Braden Stewart.
Larned sacked the Nickerson quarterback seven times and was able to apply a lot of pressure all night.
Larned improves to 2-2 and will travel to Lyons for a Central Kansas League game Friday. Nickerson drops to 1-3 and will host Pratt in another league contest.