Kapaun pops Arkansas City
ARKANSAS CITY — Jon Wiemers wasn't on the field, but even the Arkansas City coach sounded as if he had taken some of the punishment Kapaun Mount Carmel doled out in the trenches on Friday night.
There wasn't much to say about Ark City's role in the 54-7 thrashing by the Crusaders in the first game of Class 5A-District 7 and Wiemers was as much mentally beaten, as his team was physically.
"We just physically lost," he offered. "There ain't much I can say other than that, really."
The first 18 offensive snaps for both sides told the story.
All 18 of Kapaun's came in the first quarter, and seven of them went for 10 yards or more. By the time the first quarter horn mercifully let Ark City escape the field, the Crusaders had posted 37 points and 295 rushing yards.
Meanwhile, the first 18 snaps for Ark City produced just 72 yards and a score. The Bulldogs finished the game with 134 yards.
"I think everyone was kind of shocked that we were able to put points up so fast," said Kapaun's Luke Bean, who tallied 177 yards and four touchdowns. "We usually are a grind-it-out kind of team."
But Friday the Crusaders were dominant. Adelhardt credited the decisions of quarterback Nathan Degenhardt, who averaged 15 yards a carry and scored twice.
"Nathan made the right reads," Adelhardt said. "We made positive yards on first and second downs, so it was a short third down for us."
Rarely did it go to third down for Kapaun. The Crusaders finished with 452 rushing yards and their only pass attempt was to stop the first-half clock for a 40-yard Austin Griffith field goal for a 44-7 lead.
"I felt like we did a really great job controlling the line of scrimmage," Kapaun offensive lineman Graham Goodner said. "We fired off the ball, held our blocks and made sure we hit them as hard as we could so our backs like Luke (Bean) could hit those holes and get the highlights."
It was such a complete performance the first half, Kapaun (5-2, 1-0) was able to rest its starters for the majority of the second half.
Adelhardt has conditioned his players to never coast. But it was difficult not to at least stand back in awe for a few seconds after the first-quarter performance.
"Yeah, that was pretty impressive," said Degenhardt. "But we knew we couldn't let up. They are a good team and have a good offense, we so knew we had to keep scoring."
Kapaun (5-2, 1-0) 37 10 7 0 — 54 Arkansas City (4-2, 0-1) 7 0 0 0 — 7
KMC—Bean 3 run (Cook pass from Baxter)
KMC—Bean 35 run (Griffith kick)
KMC—Bean 3 run (Bean run)
KMC—Degenhardt 1 run (Griffith kick)
AC—Spencer 3 run (Torres kick)
KMC—Bean 73 run (Griffith kick)
KMC—Degenhardt 15 run (Griffith kick)
KMC—Griffith 40 field goal
KMC—J. Martin 1 run (Griffith kick)
Individual Statistics
Rushing—Kapaun, Bean 13-177, Degenhardt 8-126, Root 6-41, Heiland 8-40, J. Martin 4-35, Rott 2-15, Young 2-12, Dougherty 6-9, Norris 1-1, Dempsey 5-(-4). Ark City, Spencer 18-77, Dowler 10-19, Cox 1-1, Murphy 1-(-6).
Passing—Kapaun, Root 0-1-0-0. Ark City, Dowler 4-17-1-43.
Receiving—Kapaun, none. Ark City, Cox 1-23, Ternes 2-16, Spencer 1-4.