EUREKA — Humboldt’s first play of the game set the tone for how their night unfolded at Eureka on Friday night in a 62-0 lopsided victory.
The Cubs (5-0) were helped out on the opening kickoff by a Brody Gunderman touchdown return, followed by a two-point conversion for the early 8-0 lead.
“It really just set the energy,” said Gunderman. “At this point in the season, everyone is pumped, working as a team and we’re all putting everything together and we’re playing well right now.”
Humboldt came out of the gates strong, accounting for 48 points by halftime. It was a next-man-up kind of night for the Cubs which saw Sam Hull lead the way with a team-high two touchdowns. A total of five different Cubs scored touchdowns.
The Humboldt defense set the tone for the night, accounting for five tackles for a loss as a team. Jacob Harrington led the Cubs with a team-high four tackles for a loss on Eureka quarterback Cole Ptacek.
The defensive unit for Humboldt also came up with four turnovers, including an interception from Sam Hull and Kyler Isbell each.
After Gunderman put the Cubs on the board on the first play of the game, Sam Hull found the end zone on a one-yard touchdown rush as well as the two-point conversion attempt for the 16-0 lead.
“That’s what we preach to them no matter the opponent, we’re looking to start off hot and we want to jump on them right away and in the first half, from the first whistle, it was good to see,” Humboldt head coach Logan Wyrick said. “It was good to see the momentum continue throughout the game.”
The Cubs came up with a fourth down stop of Eureka’s offense on the Humboldt 39-yard line. After Humboldt gave the ball back again, Hull intercepted Eureka at the 30-yard line which set up another Humboldt touchdown.
That score came in the form of a Blake Ellis to Jacob Harrington 24-yard touchdown pass, followed by an Ellis two-point conversion run for the 24-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Isbell came up with the Cubs’ second interception of the game when he picked off Eureka right around midfield to give Humboldt the ball to start the second quarter.
“The goal is obviously a shutout but that’s difficult week-to-week,” said Wyrick. “The goal is to score seven points and then not let them score so if you put up a lot of points it’s fun, but we want to continue to strive on defense. It’s good to see them flying around and we were able to get more guys up front tonight.”
That’s when Ellis kept it himself and ran in a four-yard touchdown for the 32-0 lead.
Harrington came up with two big sacks for chunk losses midway through the second quarter which set up Humboldt in good field position again.
“I think it helps more defensively, if everyone does their job and we can do everything right, we’ll be alright,” said Harrington on if the offense or defense made more of a difference in the game. “Everyone did their job.”
