Olathe North’s two-headed ground attack of quarterback Arland Bruce IV and running back Daymonn Sanchez wore Olathe South down as the Eagles rattled off 28-unanswered points in a 35-14 victory on Friday.
Sanchez averaged 9.6 yards per carry as he ran for 260 yards and three touchdowns. Bruce scored the other two touchdowns as he ran for 151 yards on the evening. Bruce’s six-yard run with three seconds left in the first half tied the game at 14 as the Eagles swung the momentum back into their favor going into the second half.
Olathe North coach Chris McCartney said he loves having a playmaker like Bruce.
“He has a lot of savvy for a young kid – he’s only a sophomore,” McCartney said. “He’s a huge competitor. He’s special and he’s great to have.”
Olathe South coach Craig Lewis said the score was a deflator after his team blocked a Zach Willoughby-Neal punt that squibbed on the ground and Jai Haynes alertly ran forward and scooped the ball up as he went 51 yards to give his team a 14-7 lead with 2:45 left in the first half.
“Here we are, a minute, seven seconds left, just keep them out of the end zone,” Lewis said. “They drive right down the field and score. It’s never a good thing, but the game goes on and you have 24 more minutes to play. We did not get it done on offense is the main thing. Coaches wise, players wise – we have to improve.”
Aside from an 80-yard run from Andrew Nehrbass to open the scoring in the first quarter, the Falcons offense sputtered for most of the night. Leaning on Reed Smith as starting quarterback Evan Foster remains sidelined with an injury, Smith threw for 89 yards and two interceptions on 7-of-22 passing.
Lewis said this is a learning experience for Smith and if he does in fact learn and the team improves each week, then the Falcons will be OK.
Olathe North made the necessary improvements in the second half offensively as Olathe South was getting a strong push with its front seven in the first half.
McCartney gave all the credit to his offensive coordinator, but said they did a better job of knowing where they needed to get to to block.
Defensively, Olathe North changed up its look in the second half even though it had the same number of players in the box.
“Our kids played hard,” McCartney said. “It doesn’t matter if they don’t play hard – that’s the good thing about it.”
