Basehor-Linwood runs past Piper
The wishbone — old school, power offense — wasn’t a part of Basehor-Linwood’s plan when the season started. Not remotely.
But then starting quarterback J.C. Watson went down with an injury, and Bobcat coach Rod Stallbaumer was forced to break the proverbial emergency glass.
Power football, it turns out, fits Basehor better than an old pair of shoes. The Bobcats asserted themselves on both sides of the ball on Friday in a 33-0 victory at Piper.
The Bobcats (6-1) kept the ball on the ground for most of the game, and junior running back Nolan Ford just kept getting stronger. He finished with 178 yards on 19 carries, highlighted by a 49-yard touchdown that was well-blocked enough to be little more than a wind sprint.
“We’ve just been running the ball down people’s throats,” Ford said with a grin. “I’m fine with it.”
The Bobcats spread the ball among seven carriers before starting to substitute in the fourth quarter. It’s not remotely what Stallbaumer envisioned when the season started, but he can’t argue with the results.
“I think the kids have bought in, and we’ve looked better each week that we’ve ran it,” Stallbaumer said. “Coming in and switching it up in the middle of the year, it took a little bit to get the timing down and everything, I feel like it fits our personnel well, and right now, it’s what we’re going to do. You have to adapt. You can’t fit a square peg into a round hole.”
Defense is the other half of Basehor’s success. Piper (3-4) rebounded from a slow start to the season and came into Friday’s game with a three-game winning streak. But aside from La’James White’s 61 rushing yards, the Pirates were stymied on fFriday against the Bobcats.
It was Basehor’s fifth shutout of the season, and the Bobcats only allowed 13 points in a win over Lansing last week. Bonner Springs, who handed the Bobcats their lone loss, is the one team to have sustained success against the defense.
“We don’t have anybody on the defense who’s looking for stats. We don’t have anybody who’s talking about how many tackles they had in the game,” senior linebacker Joey Foster said. “It’s either, we put up a goose egg or we didn’t. That’s what we take pride in. It just builds confidence for the next week, so we can come out and execute even better.”
It’s one thing that has gone according to plan.
“That’s a unit we had a lot of experience back in the front seven, and they take pride in what they do. They’ve had a good year,” Stallbaumer said.
Basehor will try to keep the momentum going next week against Atchison.
This story was originally published October 13, 2017 at 9:54 PM with the headline "Basehor-Linwood runs past Piper."