Lamar lights up the sky against Williston-Elko
ALL PHOTOS BY DRAKE HORTON
By Drake Horton
Contributing Writer
It might have been three weeks since the Lamar Silver Foxes last played a high school football game, but to the untrained eye no one would have noticed as the Silver Foxes dominated the Williston-Elko Blue Devils 48-12 this past Friday night in Lamar. “We came out and competed,” Lamar head coach Chad Wilkes said after the game. “We hadn’t played in three weeks I guess; it would had been three weeks tonight since we played. We definitely worried about some rust and things like that, but they came out on fire, came out and competed. As a coach you worry about that sometimes, but when they come out and play with energy like that, we know we can be a good team.” Lamar attacked the Blue Devils with an aerial assault that would have made any air raid offense jealous, but just because the Silver Foxes can throw the ball all over the field it does not mean that they want to back away from the run. “We always feel like we can do both,” Wilkes said. “We came into the season trying to figure out what I identity is and we have a lot of good players. When you have that many good players you want to get them the ball and that is what we are going to continue to do.” Leading the way for the Silver Foxes in the air was quarterback Tyler McManus, who had four passing touchdowns to go along with 216 yards in the air. Lamar dominated the game from start to finish and by the time the third quarter started the “running clock” rule had already been implemented. The Silver Foxes started off hot, using the run to set up McManus’ first touchdown pass of the game, a 32-yard bomb that gave Lamar a lead it would never relinquish. Up 14-6 at the end of the first quarter, Lamar exploded in the second quarter, really stretching the game out of reach, scoring three more touchdowns. The first was a McManus touchdown run, followed up with back to back touchdown passes of 52 yards and 30 yards. Coming out of the half up 34-6 Lamar did not stop its aerial attack as McManus launched a 76-yard bomb that end up resulting in a running clock for the rest of the game. And while all seemed great for Lamar in its opening playoff game, Wilkes stills sees one area that his team can work on this week as it prepares for its second-round matchup against Wagener-Salley. “It’s just tackling and some of that is just going to be because of three weeks off, but we have to tackle better,” Wilkes said. “They shouldn’t have scored what they scored and that definitely hurt our offense too because our defense stayed on the field longer than it should have. The scoreboard should have been a little bit better tonight. We are going to work on it a lot, we are going to have a physical practice next to make sure we get that cleaned up.” Lamar is at home again this Friday as they take on Wagener-Salley, the team that eliminated them from the playoffs last year.