Beavers dismantle Tigers 47-14, advance to quarterfinals in playoffs
GLEN ROSE — Despite several key players out due to COVID-19 guidelines, the Glen Rose Beavers shined in an electrifying way to dismantle the West Fork Tigers 47-14 in the second round of the 2020 Class 3A state football playoffs at Beaver Stadium Friday.
The Beavers had several of their freshmen playmakers step up in a mighty huge way to advance Glen Rose to the quarterfinals next Friday to face the Charleston Tigers.
Glen Rose football head coach Mark Kehner was pleased for another postseason victory. Kehner knew several key starters were out due to COVID-19, but thought his Beavers performed well enough for a postseason victory.
Kehner mentioned the Beavers were able to grind it out, but need to execute a little better. He knows Charleston will present a tough matchup next week on the road, but Kehner hopes to have his other guys back from quarantine to face battle Charleston. They’ll [Charleston] be a tough opponent and Kehner said, “We’ve just got to play a little better.”
The Beavers maintained a productive performance Friday in front of the Beaver Stadium fans against West Fork. In the first quarter, things got a little rough for the Beavers. West Fork picked off a pass for an interception by Wyett
Kultz at the 11:16 mark— to force a early Beaver turnover from starting the game with possession. But the Beavers defense—Andrew Weatherford and Colton Hixon came up huge for a monstrous tackle to stop West Fork’s offensive execution. Then, Zander May came up with a fumble recovery for Glen Rose at the 8:44 mark and the Beavers were back in control offensively.
Noah Wright, playing quarterback, connected on a first down pass reception to Harrison Roach to move Glen Rose to West Fork’s 43-yard line. Then Wright launched the game’s first touchdown pass to Draven McSpadden on the 45-yard TD reception at the 6:37 mark. The 2-point conversion was successful by McSpadden and the Beavers led West Fork, 7-0.
Later in the first, West Fork rallied back and tied the game at 7-7 down to the 2:57 mark—Ross Ivy scored on a 24-yard touchdown run with PAT good.
Then West Fork picked off another pass with Chandler Borgerding on the interception at the 2:42 mark. The Tigers moved the ball for first
down drives into red zone territory and Kultz scored on a 4-yard touchdown run to give West Fork a slight 14-7 lead over Glen Rose at the 1:08 mark to end first quarter play.
In the second, the Beavers freshmen took over as big dawgs on the gridiron. Heath Ballance busted through the Tigers’ defense like a bulldozer to spark the Beavers ground attack and scored a 24-yard touchdown run at the 10:19 mark. The extra kick was unsuccessful, but the Beavers trailed West Fork, 14-13.
From this point, the Beavers’ defense was key and the Tigers never touched the end zone again for the rest of the contest. The Beavers went to work offensively with senior quarterback Wesley Launius completing two spiral touchdown pass receptions to Wright for 27 and 32 yards at the 7:59 mark and 3.6 seconds—which Glen Rose regained the lead over West Fork 27-14 at halftime.
In the third, the Beavers increased their lead to 20 points. By strong running for first down drives by Ballance and Hixon to red zone territory, Launius scored on a 20yard QB keeper. Glen Rose led West Fork, 34-14 after three quarters of action.
McSpadden picked off a pass for an interception to spark the defense during third quarter play.
In the fourth, Glen Rose put the game in cruise control for two end zone trips to execute touchdowns against the Tigers. Dalton Taylor scored on a 6-yard touchdown run— 8:49 (41-14) with PAT good, then Ballance soared into the end zone on a 24-yard touchdown run—2:45 mark (4714).
Defensively, Tagg Haynes picked off a pass for an interception at the 8:49 mark that led to the Beavers final end zone trip scored by Ballance.
For the game, Glen Rose totaled for 452 yards of offense, 199 yards passing, 244 yards rushing with 26 first downs. Launius had 125 yard passing with two touchdowns, Ballance accounted for 128 yards rushing with two touchdowns and Wright racked up 67 yards receiving with two touchdowns.
West Fork totaled 189 yards of offense, 76 yards passing and 113 yards rushing with 19 first downs.