After slow start, Wolverines claw past Kiefer for home-opening victory

There may have been some anxious Vian football fans after their Wolverines trailed 14-0 to the Kiefer Trojans after the first quarter in Friday night’s home opener at St. John Stadium. Then, came the final three quarters.

The Vian defense pitched a shutout, while the Wolverines ended up scoring the game’s final 45 points over the final three periods en route to a 45-14 home-opening victory.

“We came out and got a slow start, which we’ve have been doing a little bit lately — it’s something we’re working on (fixing),” Vian coach Gary Willis said. “(Assistant) coach (Lance) Winans and his defensive staff did a really good job in getting us prepared all week. The coaches worked their tails off, and the kids responded. We came out with a win.”

Trailing 14-0 after a period, the Wolverines (2-0) cut the deficit in half on the first of three touchdown passes from quarterback Cash Trammell to wide receiver Jacob Brannick. The first one covered 19 yards. Mikayah Mendoza hit the extra point to cut the Kiefer leading half at 14-7 with 9:37 left before halftime.

The Trojans (0-2) went for it on fourth down but were stopped at the Vian 36 with 8:34 remaining in the first half.

The Wolverines needed only 40 seconds to go 36 yards as Trammell connected with Brannick for the second time, this time on a 36-yard TD pass. Mendoza’s PAT tied the game at 14-all with 7:54 left in the first half.

The Wolverines took the lead for good as the Trammell-Brannick connection struck a hat trick as the Vian duo combined for its third touchdown pass play, this one covering 13 yards with 1:15 remaining before halftime. Mendoza’s extra point gave Vian its first lead at 21-14, which was the score at halftime.

The Wolverines scored on their first possession of the second half as Trammell threw his fourth touchdown pass of the night, this one was a 53-yard strike to Masyn Wright. Mendoza’s PAT upped the Vian advantage to 28-14 with 11:04 left in the third quarter.

Mendoza extended the Vian lead with a 22-yard field goal with 3:52 remaining in the period to put the Wolverines up 31-14 going into the final quarter.

The fourth period belonged to Wright who scored twice on a 3- and a 16-yard touchdown run. The second TD was set up by a defensive stop on fourth down when Kiefer gambled and was stopped at its own 23 — about a yard shot of the line to gain — with 9:56 left in the game. The Wolverines needed only two plays and 1:37 to score as Wright scored his second touchdown in the period.

The first quarter was a struggle, both offensively and defensively, for the Wolverines.

On their first possession of the game, there was a bad snap to Trammell, who was in shotgun formation, that stymied the drive. Vian had to punt, and pinned the Trojans at their own 2-yard line with 8:26 left in the first quarter.

The Trojans, who had little problem moving the ball against the Vian defense in the first period, did so as they went 98 yards in eight plays to hit paydirt as Kiefer running back Lucas Boyles rambled 43 yards for the score. Bradley Breland took it in for the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead for the Trojans with 5:08 remaining in the period.

Breland picked off Trammell and returned the interception 17 yards to the Vian 28.

Eight plays and 28 yards later, the Trojans found themselves in the end zone once more, this time on a 1-yard plunge by Breland with 1:15 remaining in the quarter. The two-point conversion failed, keeping the Trojans ahead 14-0 after a period.

“Early on, there were things we knew we weren’t doing, and attacking in certain places,” Willis said. “It’s high school boys. It’s effort sometimes. Sometimes you don’t know what it is, but they got going. That’s how they can play, but we have to put together for four quarters. They’re resilient and kept playing. We’ll take (the win). We just wished we had played for all four quarters, but we’ll take that (win).”