EXPANDED HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL COVERAGE
WR turns into runner, paces lopsided victory
Duke Johncour has been at this long enough to know when he has a differencemaker on his team.
That’s why one of the keys heading into Avonworth’s Allegheny Conference showdown with undefeated Apollo-Ridge was to get the ball into the hands of senior wide receiver Kyros Thorpe.
“He’s played a lot of receiver for us, and we’ve talked about getting him more touches in the backfield and we accomplished out goal and he delivered,” Johncour said. “He had a great game.”
On his second carry, Thorpe broke several tackles at the line of scrimmage and rolled through the Apollo-Ridge (4-1, 2-1) defense for a 54-yard touchdown that set the tone for the Avonworth (5-0, 3-0) offense as the host Antelopes rolled to a 42-14, running-clock victory against the Vikings at Lenzner Field.
“I just tried to make a play out of anything and I’ll try to make a play out of nothing,” Thorpe said. “At the same time I’m really smart and try not to cause unnecessary mistakes.”
Thorpe carried the ball only six times, but picked up 119 yards despite the fact he lost 15 when he recovered a bad snap and tried to do what he likes to do and make something out of nothing. He also finished with three touchdowns on the ground — his second went for 44 yards— and also caught three passes for 29 more.
“Our O-line created a lot of time for me to just sit back and read the holes,” Thorpe said. “They did a lot of work in the offseason, and it definitely showed on that (first touchdown) play because I had a lot of time to make a read and, once I made it, I just hit it up in the hole.”
Apollo-Ridge took control for a little while on its first drive and moved the ball into Avonworth territory. But on a secondand-7 at the Antelopes’ 43, Vikings quarterback Jake Fello was flushed out of the pocket and flipped a pass late over the middle that was intercepted by Drew Harper and returned to the Apollo-Ridge 37.
All it took was two plays, a 12-yard run by Thorpe to move the ball just outside the red zone and a 25-yard inside slant pass from Park Penrod to Trevor Faulkner to give the Antelopes a 7-0 lead with 7:53 to play in the first quarter.
After Thorpe’s 54-yard touchdown put Avonworth ahead 14-0, Apollo-Ridge showed a little desperation going for it on fourth-and-1 from its own 29. The Vikings handed the ball off right tackle to leading rusher Logan Harmon, but the 5-foot-9, 206pound junior was stopped for no gain, and the Vikings turned the ball over on downs with 1:29 left in the first quarter.
“I have faith in them, and we have 44 running the ball,” Apollo-Ridge coach John Skiba said, referring to Harmon. “If we came out and execute — we didn’t do a good job on that play either — but there’s usually not a lot of teams who can stop 44 when he’s got a head of steam and we took our shot.”
After an incompletion and an offsides penalty on Apollo-Ridge, Jax Miller touched the ball for the first time in the game and rolled into the end zone from the 24 to give the Antelopes a 21-0 lead at the end of the period.
Apollo-Ridge got back into the game briefly when it recovered a muffed punt and punched it in as Fello connected with Klay Fitzroy for a 34-yard touchdown with 9:40 left in the first half to cut the Avonworth lead to 21-7.
The Antelopes got their three-score advantage back a little over three minutes later when, after a Vikings fumble, Thorpe ran 44 yards for a touchdown and a 28-7 halftime lead.
In the second half, with Miller nicked up, sophomore Ian Syam ran 15 times for 124 yards and a touchdown that started the running clock with 4:04 left in the third quarter.