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Orange no match for Red-White and Black in glorious return
BEATRICE, Neb — A red-black-and-white truck sent tremors across southern Nebraska Friday night while letting every football fan know...
Oh yeah, baby, we are back rolling through Class B’s front yard.
Class B??
This was nothing but Grade-A Bison beef blasting all over Beatrice, 56-6, with more bringing their No. 1 “A” games than any Orangemen could count.
Who was McCook’s player of the game?
Who cares?
Hand out 50 game balls after this 50-point, season-opening win.
Junior Tristan Campbell’s 182 rushing yards topped the McCook stat sheet, though likely more than 100 of those never saw any Beatrice defender even close to tackling him.
That’s because McCook’s starting O-line of seniors Beckett Heskett, Davien Hanson, Quentin Terry, junior Simon Garcia and center Trey Tiller set the tone with just those first few plays.
Actually, Campbell’s reverse on the opening kickoff showed there would be no slowing McCook for long.
Senior Ethan Schmidt took the football from Campbell and went almost to midfield before Beatrice pushed him out of bounds.
Campbell then wentseven, 17 and 22 on McCook’s first three plays of scrimmage for 2024 with junior H-back Gabe Roberts also paving his clear paths.
T.C. pulled a defender to the Beatrice one, then quarterback Trenton Raile powered/breezed into that end zone for McCook’s first six points.
The Bison truly never looked back.
McCook’s defense caused a three-yard loss before two penalties inspired a third-down pass that senior Ethan Schmidt stopped 11 yards from first down.
The Bison promptly showed how passing is done following Campbell’s 35-yard run.
Raile dropped back, saw junior classmate Miles Pollmann in one-and-one coverage before connecting on one perfect 21-yard TD pass.
Gunner Kaps’ second of eight straight PATs made it 14-0 barely five minutes into the season.
And the scores started arriving even faster.
Campbell went one yard for his first TD before Beatrice’s next scrimmage play featured an attempted screen pass.
Sophomore cornerback Ty Junker showed real ball skills, plucking this pass out of air and scoring from 21 yards before any Orangemen reacted.
It was 28-0 and the first quarter was only finishing.
Junker’s second INT was even niftier when he soared above a receiver to catch the tipped ball — ending that only Beatrice scoring threat before halftime.
McCook had already added on three more TDs on Schmidt’s seven-yard run, Raile’s 52-yard pass to Pollmann and a Campbell 18-yard dash finishing with him hurdling one final defender.
Raile’s second TD was a perfect ball dropped into the top receiver’s arms.
The margin had reached 49-0 which meant Friday’s entire second half featured a mercy-rule running clock. Sophomore Grady Miller nearly reached 100 rush yards after intermission, scoring on a 15-yard final Bison rumble.
The Bison move on for their home opener against Aurora Friday in a 7 p.m. contest.