HUMBOLDT The Humboldt Cubs dominated the Central Heights Vikings on Thursday night as Conor Haviland scored four touchdowns on five carries, and passed for another, en route to a 70-8 win in the first round of the playoffs.
Haviland scored on touchdown runs of 29, 65, 61 and 35 yards on the night, while his other run of a meager 13 yards and a first down, resulted in 193 yards on just five carries.
The Cubs (9-0) scored touchdowns on its first four offensive plays. Defensively Humboldt also scored on a 60-yard interception from Cooper Jaro on Centrals first offensive possession.
All of this added up to a 64-0 halftime lead.
They even unveiled a new wrinkle with lineman Joshua Hull lining up at quarterback in the wildcat formation. And even that was successful, with Hull rumbling in from four-yards out for a touchdown to give Humboldt a 22-0 lead with 6:17 remaining in the first quarter.
Sometimes you are just trying to look at what you are getting, which is weird to say when you have scored three or four times, and it may sound bad when I say it. But that is what the case was. It was a few drives in before I found out from our lineman where they were lining up and we tried to take advantage of that, head coach Logan Wyrick said. We used our speed and took advantage of some things.
Speed Hoepker led the Cubs defensively with eight tackles.
It took Central Heights four possessions before they got their first 1st down.
Defensively, we did a better job flying to the ball. We did a better job with our alignments. We have to cause turnovers and get extra possessions and we did that tonight, Wyrick said.
With the win, Humboldt advances to take on Southeast Cherokee, who they defeated 50-18 on the road just a week ago.
Southeast (8-1) defeated Osage City 12-6 in double overtime.
We are always glad to be home because we have a lot of fast kids and we can take advantage of that on the turf. I still have my scout cards from last week and we can use that. They have have a heck of a running game and size upfront. It is going to be a ballgame and we are going to have to find a way, Wyrick said.
Jaro also had a 59-yard touchdown run on one carry, while Kyle Kobold hauled in a 35-yard touchdown pass from Haviland.
Humboldt will host Southeast next Friday night.
