By Fred Solis
The Hutchinson Tribune
ANDALE—Andale ran, passed and used its defense and special teams to put up an astounding 50 first-quarter points last Friday as the Indians crushed visiting Trinity Academy 80-7.
In such a lopsided win, it’s hard to pick any one play that stands out as the key to the victory, but multiple takeaways—Andale’s recipe for success—helped pave the way, beginning with Afton Allaire’s block of Trinity’s first punt attempt. Parker Lies was on the spot to grab the ball and scamper into the end zone for an 8-0 lead after the conversion less than a minute into the game.
Trinity was quick to answer, though, when slippery Kip Roberts squirted loose to return Andale’s ensuing kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown to make it an 8-7 game just seconds later.
But it turned out to be the Knights’ one-and-only hurrah on the evening. Less than 30 seconds later, Cruz Kaiser dashed 39 yards for a score to up the Andale lead to 16-7. Kaiser was the game’s leading rusher with 70 yards on two carries.
Eight other Indians racked up double-digit numbers on the ground as Andale pounded out 343 rushing yards while holding the Knights to 63.
“I was pleased with how we started,” Andale Coach Dylan Schmidt said. “Obviously, the kickoff return for them I was not [pleased], but I think it kind of slapped us in the face a little bit and got us going.”
A bad snap and fumble on the first play of Trinity’s next series led to another Lies scoop-and-score at 10:14 for a 24-7 Andale advantage. Another bumbling hike by the Knights on their ensuing possession resulted in a safety and a 26-7 Indians lead.
Andale kept the pressure on as Jayven Dansel cracked into the end zone from 16 yards out 23 seconds later to extend the lead to 34-7.
Another three-and-out by the Knights led to the Indians’ next score, a 21-yard Kaiser-to-Lies pass at 3:42 for a 42-7 lead.
The Knights went for broke on their next possession and tried to convert a first down on fourth-and-10. But they turned the ball over to the Indians on downs with just over a minute left in the first quarter.
Andale needed just 13 seconds to find the end zone again on another Kaiser scoring bomb, this one to Dansel to stretch the lead to 50-7 with 50 seconds left in the opening frame. Kaiser ended the night with 3-for-3 passing for 99 yards and three touchdowns.
“Our guys were ready to roll: big plays, whether it’s passes or busting free and running for a long one. A lot of scoring on a lot of different ways; we scored passing, scored running, scored on defense. It was a really good first quarter,” Schmidt said, summing up Andale’s first 12 minutes of play.
The second quarter wasn’t any kinder to Trinity as they fumbled deep in their own territory and Judd Eck pounced on the ball to set Andale up on the Knights’ 9 for a first and goal at 11:55. Jrayton Dansel punched it in from the 9 to pad the score at 57-7 with 11:49 to go in the first half.
After Trinity’s next punt, Andale found themselves facing first-and-30 after a pair of penalties that put them on their own 37. The Indians went to work, though, and paid off the drive with a 26-yard passing touchdown from Kaiser to Allaire at 6:17 to make it 64-7.
“We were getting positive yards,” Schmidt said. “We felt like if we could just not have penalties, we could chunk some off a little bit and we did. Our guys know that if they execute, that good things are going to happen and that’s what they did.”
By coaches’ mutual agreement, the running clock then went into effect with a little over six minutes left in the second quarter. The score stood at 64-7 at halftime.
A 3-yard plunge by Hudson Ungles accounted for Andale’s third-quarter scoring, making it 72-7, and the final score of the night was a fourth-quarter Brayden Spexarth-to-Jackson Short pass from 52 yards out. Short and Jayven Dansel shared top receiving honors in the game with catches of 52 yards each.
In a desperate bid to get on the scoreboard one more time before time expired, Trinity plugged into its passing game on its last set of downs. But Konner Bretthauer put a stop to that effort when he stepped in for a game-ending interception.
“Our kids practice hard, and they play hard, and our coaches do a great job, so they were motivated,” Schmidt said of the Indians’ effort on the night.
The 6-0 Indians travel to 0-6 Clearwater Friday, Oct. 16, for a 7 p.m. game.