St. Mary’s Colgan took control from the opening drive and never looked back.
The Panthers defeated the Girard Trojans 34-0 in the Kickoff Classic on Friday night at Hutchinson Field.
The Trojans opened the game with possession, but the drive was cut short when Christian Smith intercepted Matt Perez’s pass at midfield. When the Panthers took over, quarterback Nate Arnold found Zach Smith for a 43-yard pass. The next play, Arnold hit Jesse Newcomb for a 12-yard touchdown.
And pretty much everything else continued to go Colgan’s way after that.
“I think (Girard) thought we were going to come out with the run,” Colgan quarterback Nate Arnold said. “But we came out with the pass. Obviously things were open for us, and it looked pretty good.”
And if anyone watching was surprised that Colgan decided to air-it-out at first, they shouldn’t feel bad.
“We mixed it up and went to the air the first play,” Arnold said. “To tell you the truth, that took me by surprised. I wasn’t expecting that.”
“We just tried to get them off balance and keep them out of the end zone as much as possible,” Daniel Humble said. “But it wasn’t easy, they’re a good team.”
But after that first drive, Colgan did need to take to the air much. It’s next four touchdowns all came on the ground.
Zach Smith hit pay dirt on a 45-yard option play in the first quarter. Andy Farmer returned a punt 55 yards for touchdown in the second quarter and the Panthers took a 20-0 lead into half-time.
Zach Smith returned the opening kickoff of the second half 80 yards for a touchdown and Christian Smith went straight up the middle for a 53-yard score in the third quarter for the game’s final scoring drive.
“We didn’t tackle very well in space, that’s all there is to it,” Girard head coach Leon Miller said. “We had some opportunities on plays to hit a guy but we didn’t wrap up. You’re not going to get him on the ground that way.”
Girard falls to 0-1 on the year and faces Southeast — also 0-1 — on Friday. The Lancers fell to Galena 48-14.
“We know exactly where we stand now,” Miller said. “They’re a good football team. The only way you get better and learn what you’re about is playing good teams. We definitely learned more about ourselves tonight.”
Colgan moves on to 1-0 and will play Frontenac on Friday.
The Raiders fell to Neodesha 27-0.
