EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
By the time Liberal had its third snap form scrimmage, the Redskins already had a 13-0 lead to start a 70-6 romp over Wichita North in the season opener.
Xavier Porras gave the Redskins the early 7-0 lead when he broke free on the second play from scrimmage on a 59-yard run.
Landon Martinez turned defense into offense three plays later when he intercepted a pass and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown and a 13-0 lead.
Freshman quarterback Tevin Cotter ran his third play form scrimmage and threw his first pass of his career — a 52-yard touchdown to Anthony Aragonez, and the Redskins had a 21-0 lead with 6:22 to play in the first quarter.
The Angry Red defense forced a three and out, and after the Redskins took possession, Cotter threw a bomb on a second and nine to James Fieser for a 38-yard touchdown pass, and the Redskins had a 28-0 lead in the first quarter.
Liberal’s next possession ended in a punt after a bad snap on third down led to a 13-yard loss, but two plays later Martinez intercepted a low pass just off the turf and returned it 33 yards for his second pick six of the game, and the Redskins had a 35-0 lead.
The Angry Red defense continued to wreak havoc on North by forcing a fumble at the 2 yard line on the next possession, and Porras plunged into the end zone a play later for a 42-0 Liberal lead.
North put together its best drive of the night on its next possession, with two first downs and moving the ball across the 50 yard line. But Andy Nguyen intercepted a pass to end the drive, and Porras capped a six-play drive with a one-yard touchdown run to give the Redskins a 49-0 lead in the first half.
Alex Schwindt had Liberal’s fourth interception of the game on the next drive and returned the ball to the end zone, but a block in the back negated the touchdown, and the Redskins had the ball at the North 20 yard line.
But Coach Bryan Luetters kept Schwindt in the back field and gave him a chance to reach the end zone on a running play form the 20.
Schwindt cut up the middle, made a pair of defenders miss, and then angled to the left for a 20-yard touchdown run and a 56-0 Liberal lead at half.
The second half was played with a running clock, and the Redskins took the opening drive of the third quarter on a four-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a six-yard touchdown run by quarterback Wyatt Mannel, who came in to relieve Cotter, and the Redskins had a 64-0 lead.
Adan Amador ended the next North drive with the fifth interception of the game for the Redskins, and three plays later Mannel again found the end zone ona six-yard run and a 70-0 Liberal lead.
North was able to take advantage of a Redskin turnover in the final three minutes of the game deep in Liberal territory and avoid the shutout with a touchdown pass to the end zone in the final seconds of the game, but the Redskins opened the season with the 70-6 win.
“We knew if we did things the right way it could turn out like this,” Luetters said. “We didn’t have a jamboree this year for a reason. We didn’t want to get anyone hurt before the game. We didn’t worry what the other team was doing. We were worried about what we were doing. We didn’t tackle very well. We have to work on that.”
The Redskins had weapons a year ago with Brooks Kappelmann and Zayden Martinez, but those slots have been filled with newcomers.
“Based off the performance tonight, the offense was about a C,” Luetters said. “Based on what we’ve seen at practice, the offense is still an A-minus. We have some things to clear up with young skilled position players. The quarterbacks did well tonight. I think we had three defensive touchdowns. We had a short field. I’m sure our stats are garbage. We have a lot of room to get better.”
The key to improvement has been the competition for starting positions at practice.
“We compete,” Luetters said. “We compete for spots. We handed out 11 black shirts on defense and had a great practice on Labor Day. Had a crappy practice on Tuesday, and we took all the black jerseys away. We are going to reissue them after we watch film tonight.”
After starting Cotter for the first half, Luetters went to Mannel in the second half to work both young quarterbacks.
Cotter was six for eight passing with 128 yards and two touchdowns in his debut. Mannel ran for a pair of touchdowns in the second half.
“We knew Mannel had some packages,” Luetters said. “Both kids are young. The good thing is we have packages for both of them. We honestly ran maybe 8 percent of our offense tonight. There’s a lot more things they both can do that we didn’t do.”
Martinez shined with two pick sixes on defense.
“He is a hard worker, a very athletic kid,” Luetters said. “You have to have a lot of kids between 200 and 220 pound kids. We didn’t have any when we started. We have a lot of them now. Landon is one of those. He can do some damage, but he is fast enough to make plays like that.”
The unsung heroes were the linemen on both sides of the ball.
“By far this si the best line we’ve had since we’ve been here,” Luetters, who is entering his third season, said. “We will play better teams, but our defense is doing what they are supposed to do. We have to work on tackling, and our offense hasn’t even tipped the iceberg yet. We have some big boys that we will lean on heavily.”
Liberal (1-0) will host Wichita South (1-0) Friday.
