The Wolverines celebrated homecoming at St. John Stadium with a 55-0 romp over their rivals from the Lake Tenkiller region. The blowout was a lot different than the nail-biters that decided the District A-7 championship the past two seasons, but Vian head coach Brandon Tyler didn't mind one bit.
"I think we were focused. We didn't want what happened last year to happen again," said Tyler, whose team improved to 2-0 with the non-district victory.
The 55-point loss was the worst for Keys in school history.
Vian was brutally effective running the football on Friday, but the Wolverines used a quick aerial strike to take the lead. Quarterback Seth Sloan passed 37 yards to Londell Taylor on Vian's second offensive play of the night and Chris Peoples kicked the extra point for a 7-0 lead.
Demarqua Pratt made it 13-0 later in the first quarter, scoring on a five-yard run. The senior tailback broke loose for a 60-yard touchdown run to open the second quarter and Sloan ran for the two-point conversion, making it 21-0.
The Wolverines went on to grab a 34-0 lead by halftime. Fullback Miguel Pratt ran 53 yards for a touchdown and Taylor caught a 10-yard TD pass from Sloan as Vian put the game away early.
In the third quarter, the Wolverines got a 13-yard TD run from Demarqua Pratt and Sloan scored on a four-yard quarterback keeper. Taylor ran for the two-point conversion to make it 48-0 with 4:06 left in the period.
Tyler Shade scored the final touchdown of the night for Vian with a five-yard run and Peoples' kicked the point-after with 5:30 remaining in the game.
Demarqua Pratt led Vian in rushing with 16 carries for 154 yards. Miguel Pratt picked up 100 on just six runs and Sloan carried the ball nine times for 78 yards. Vian piled up 571 yards of total offense with 432 coming on the ground.
"I was very happy with our running game," said Tyler. "We had two backs with over 100 yards, so the offensive line did a great job. Our two new guys on the line are Phillip Wright at tight end and Blake Bennett at left guard and they did a good job."
Sloan completed 7-of-12 passes for 139 yards. Taylor was the leading receiver with five catches for 97 yards. Howard Zachary and Tyren Samuels also caught passes in the victory.
Bruce Ainesworth paced the Vian defense with five tackles. Nick Albertson had four stops as the Wolverines notched their second shutout of the season by holding Keys to 151 yards of total offense.
Keys turned the ball over five times. Taylor, Sloan and Andy McEver all intercepted passes for Vian while Albertson and Eddie Webster recovered fumbles.
Tyler was pleased with the win, but still saw room for improvement after the Wolverines were penalized 12 times for 104 yards.
"We had too many penalties and we have to eliminate those. That was the only negative drawback from the game," said Tyler.
