It wasn’t all that surprising th
at Forest Hills Eastern put 56 points on the board against Wayland Thursday night. The Hawks scored 48 in their season debut a week before.
But it was surprising that the Wildcats, who unleashed an impressive aerial offensive Aug. 27 in a heart-stopping 34-28 loss to Hopkins, did not even manage a single first down from an offensive play until less than a minute was left in the half. And at that time they were getting drubbed to the tune of 42-0 and faced the prospect of a running clock to start the second half.
The Wildcats did finally sh
ow signs of offensive life by going 88 yards, all through the air, on four plays, with quarterback Tanner VanDyke hitting Michael Kelly with a 15-yard TD strike with just four seconds to go until intermission.
But the first 23 minutes of the ballgame were as bad for Wayland as the season opener was good.
The visiting Hawks had three excellent chances to score in the first six minutes. But they blew the first two on a fumble three yards from the end zone, recovered by Kyle Jansen, and a botched field goal attempt from 22 yards out.
But quarterback Jack Clark took the pigskin nine yards into the end zone himself at the 6:59 mark to draw first blood. Less than three minutes later Clark hit Jake Sypniewski with a 12-yard scoring strike just in front of the goal posts and then a six-yard TD pass found Drew Pawlanta.
Forest Hills had scored three touchdowns in just about a half quarter.
The surprisingly sluggish Wildcat offense afforded the Hawks the opportunities. Forest Hills picked off four passes deep in Wayland territory and did not allow the home team to get anything going.
The Hawks slowed down briefly in the second period because of personal foul and illegal blocking penalties, but tacked three more TDs on the scoreboard with only a minute left in the half and mounted a 42-0 advantage. That’s when the Wildcats started to look like they did the week before and they went into the intermission lockerroom down 42-6.
VanDyke, who sat out a few series earlier, tossed a 33-yard pass to Dakota Johnson from his own 12 to the 45. Then Kelly made a nice catch at the Forests Hills Eastern 15 to set up the ‘Cats’ first score.
Kelly finished the game with nine receptions for 178 yards for Wayland in his second straight outstanding performance as a first-year senior.
Clark completed seven of 14 passes for 123 yards and three touchdowns and he rushed for two more.
PHOTOS: This was one of the Hawks’ few incomplete passes during the evening. Defending on this play is Kyle Jansen (3).
Forest Hills Eastern quarterback Jack Clark begins his nine-yard TD scamper a after shaking a tackle by Brody Place (34) behind him.
