The East Webster Wolverines put together one of their most complete games under coach Ron Price.
The Wolverines had 365 yards of total offense and five interceptions as they raced out to a 42-0 lead in the first quarter and cruised to a 51-0 win over Vardaman on Friday night.
The Wolverines improve to 3-0 on the season, the best start of Price’s tenor at East Webster.
“Going into the year, I thought for us to have success this year, we needed to have some early season success,” Price said. “To be 3-0 and win like we did, we were able to have a lot of success in the first half. We were able to do some good things on offense and throw the ball when we wanted and run the ball. We were able to play a lot of young guys that we wanted to get reps. To be able to get everybody in and make improvements and play a complete game was very exciting for us on Friday night.”
After forcing Vardaman three and out to start the game, the Wolverines needed just three plays to go 55 yards as Debo Patterson scored on a 14-yard run with 9:27 left in the first. Parker Burleson booted the PAT and East Webser led 7-0 early.
The defense got in on the scoring action the next play as Carter Flora intercepted a Vardaman pass and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown with 8:32 left in the first. The PAT failed and EW led 13-0.
After another interception by Flora, Steven Betts hit Gray McCarter on a 30-yard touchdown pass with 7:57 left in the first. Burleson’s PAT was good and East Webster led 20-0.
“Against Shaw, we felt like we left a few interceptions on the field,” Price said. “We worked on that every day in practice last week. To be able to pick those balls off after working on it all week was big for our guys. The defense has been playing well. Hopefully, they are confident in what they are going going into this next stretch of games.”
The Wolverines got a safety on their next possession to go up 22-0. East then took the ensuing kick and went 49 yards in four plays as Betts hit Jon Cunningham on a 38-yard touchdown pass with 4:13 left in the first. The PAT was blocked andEast led 28-0.
The Wolverines got another interception and then Betts scored on a 3-yard run with 1:53 left in the first to go up 35-0
The Rams threw another interception and Tyrik Pittman then scored on a 33-yard run with three seconds left in the first. Burleson’s PAT was good and EW led 42-0.
East Webster scored on another safety early in the second to go up 44-0 and then finished out the scoring as Cunningham scored on a 4-yard run to finish out the scoring. Burleson’s Pat made it 51-0.
“We simplified the game plan going into the game,” Price said. “We had a set of plays we wanted to run and executed those well. Steven did a good job of throwing the ball on time. We would have liked to have thrown it more but once it got out of hand, we weren’t able to do that. Hopefully, moving forward, we can build on what we did on Friday night and come in and correct the mistakes we made last week.”
The Wolverines had 263 yards rushing, led by Pittman who had 68 yards on seven carries. Cunningham had 57 yards on six carries while Betts had 56 yards on six carries. Betts was 3-for-4 passing for 102 yards and two TDs. Cunningham had one catch for 38 yards while Pittman had one for 33 and McCarter had one for 31.
On defense, the Wolverines had five interceptions as Flora had two. Cunningham had one along with Luke McKee and Daniel Rogers. Kobe Smith had four tackles while Cunningham, Isaac Jones, Camron Jennings and Caleb Massey each had three apiece. McKee and Kendell Carden each had two tackles apiece.
