Colcord wins annual Delaware County duel
■ Earp erupts for 6 TDs in 56-14 blowout as Hornets clinch playoff spot
COLCORD, Okla. — Steam rose from Spencer Earp’s head and blended with a thickening fog falling over Hornet Football Stadium on Friday evening.
It still was the third quarter, but the senior quarterback’s job already was done during a 56-12 win against Kansas in the annual South Delware County Bowl.
Earp got the early breather after accounting for six touchdowns to build a 50-0 lead late in the third quarter. His efforts helped the Hornets (5-5, 3-3) reach the postseason for the first time under second-year coach Curtis Waltman.
“With a rivalry game, sometimes you try to simplify the message,” Waltman said. “We only have one shot at this. We only have this team for these amount of moments, so our mantra this week was just to cherish every breath and extend the season.
“It’s exciting for the program and it’s a exciting moment for me to be able to return Colcord to the playoffs.”
Earp completed 14 consecutive passes during one second quarter stretch. He had two passing touchdowns to Matthew Farris, a rushing touchdown and a 66-yard interception return for a touchdown to elicit a 36-0 halftime lead.
“We went with a very fast pace,” Earp said. “We kept running with it, and it worked out.”
Waltman, who played receiver at the University of Villanova, had his offense open with five straight passing plays. Earp went on the complete 5 of 7 passes for 58 yards on the first drive to begin his streak of 14 straight completions. He finished 19 of 25 for 248 yards.
“We knew we may struggle running against them because everybody has struggled running against them,” Waltman said. “We were very fortunate that we have two very high caliber wide receivers in Ryan Castleman and Matthew Farris, along with some others guys as well we felt like would give them some problems.
“And we obviously have a quarterback in Spencer Earp who’s gotten better each week at reading and getting the ball to those guys, so as far as a script for the first half, it’s exactly how we would have scripted it.”
After a fumble recovery by Julio Maury, Earp rushed for a touchdown before later passing for another score to Castleman to push the margin to 50-0 late in third quarter. Castleman’s second rushing touchdown made it 56-0 before Kansas slipped the shutout with two touchdowns in the final one minute, 23 seconds against Colcord’s reserves.
That said, Colcord’s varsity
defense essentially got to celebrate a shutout. The unit added a extra defensive linemen this week to combat the Comets’ running attack, which was hampered when quarterback Keelan Davis and running back Daris Glass went down with injuries.
“Coach (Bud) Simmons coming back and being our defensive coordinator has helped us so much,” Waltman said. “The kids just
believe in his system and I just really thought our kids were engaged this week in really just spending another week together by extending out season.
“They really brought into the game plan this week.”
Earp said the Hornets could be peaking at the right time heading into the playoffs. They will travel to Adair, which won the 2A-8 last night with 36-14 win at a Commerce.
“This means our seasons keeps going on; I don’t have words to describe the feeling,” Earp said. “We’ve had our best weeks of practice these past few weeks and it definitely shows. We may have lost against Holland Hall (48-14 in Week 9), but we’ve been playing our best football these past few weeks.”