by Keith Kelley–3. 1 Oct ’14
The Cheyenne East Thunderbirds were in no mood for tricks or treats, as they hammered Casper Kelly Walsh 57-27 Friday night at Okie Blanchard Stadium. Senior quarterback Tevis Bartlett rushed for two touchdowns, threw for another, and actually caught a pass, as he accounted for 417 yards of total offense by himself.
East jumped out to a 23-0 first quarter lead, before the Trojans would get on the board. That included a safety on a bad KW snap on a punt attempt. The ball would roll into the endzone, as the T-birds would force the safety and go up 16-0.
The T-birds were as efficient as they’ve been offensively. East would not punt once, as they were only stopped one time, early on in the third quarter, when they failed to pick up a first down on a fourth down attempt. The other drives without points were right before the half, and at the end of the game. The T-birds racked up 533 yards of total offense–349 yards rushing and 284 through the air. The East offensive line made big holes for the ground game again, as two T-birds were over 100 yards for the game, as Bartlett would go for 137 and senior running back Brad Craft ran for 147 and three touchdowns. Head coach Chad Goff said the offensive line has been a bright spot all year.
Defensively, East bottled up KW quarterback Marcus Nolan just enough, as they held the Trojans to just 215 yards of total offense–103 on the ground, and 112 through the air. Nolan did have three rushing touchdowns in the game. Goff says they did an OK job on Nolan, who he said is an incredible athlete.
The only part of the game where East head coach Chad Goff was disappointed in, was special teams. The T-birds continually gave up big plays on KW kickoff returns, including a 100 yard return for a TD from Seth Romsa right before the half. But it wasn’t enough.
AS mentioned above, Bartlett ran for 137, threw for 228 yards on 16-23 passing, and also caught a pass for 52 yards and a TD. Bartlett also completed his final pass to his younger brother, freshman Gunner Bartlett, for eight yards.
East is now 8-2 on the season and will host Gillette Friday evening at 6 pm.
