Strong second half not enough for Comanche

LINDSAY - A slow start by Comanche allowed Lindsay to get up early and then hold off the Indians for a 34-20 victory in the regular-season finale last Friday.

The Leopards built a 28-0 halftime lead, but the Indians didn’t quit, getting as close as 28-14 early in the fourth quarter before a penalty against Comanche led to Lindsay’s final score and totally shifted the momentum back to the home team.

“For whatever reason, we didn’t seem like we came out ready to do battle,” said Casy Rowell, head coach. “I don’t know if it was because we didn’t play the previous week or what, but Lindsay came out fired up and ready to play. You can’t get down 28 points to a good team. It also didn’t help that our center Cade White got banged up. Then that penalty was a huge momentum shift.”

The penalty came in the fourth quarter. The Comanche defense had forced the Leopards into a punting situation. Lindsay’s punter is a rugby-style kicker who runs to one side before punting. On that particular punt, a Comanche defender hit the punter as he was getting the punt off and was flagged for roughing the punter. Comanche coaches argued that the punter had become a runner when he took off after receiving the snap, but officials did not agree and the call stood.

That gave Lindsay a first down and the Leopards would drive down the field the rest of the way for a touchdown to put them up three scores (34-14) with 5:55 to go in the game.

Comanche linebacker Kasen VanBuskirk intercepted a pass in the third quarter that ended a Lindsay drive and gave the Indians a spark. Comanche drove down the field with quarterback Kooper Doucet scoring on a 1-yard touchdown run with 4:45 to go in the third quarter.

The Indians would get the ball back at the end of the third quarter and then went into their bag of tricks on their first play of the fourth quarter. Doucet took the snap and pitched it out to running back Bryson Evans, who then threw a halfback pass to wide receiver Mason Kulbeth, who was all alone behind the Lindsay defense. Kulbeth then outran the Leopard defense the rest of the way for an 83-yard touchdown.

It would not be the last touchdown pass for Evans on the night. With just under three minutes to go, Evans took a direct snap in the Wildcat formation and threw a pass to Doucet, who had lined up at receiver and Doucet ran the final few yards to complete the 19-yard touchdown pass play.

“We’re trying to get the ball into the hands of our best players,” Rowell said. “Bryson played quarterback two games this season, so he knows what he’s doing.”

Even with the loss, Rowell still saw some positives.

“We’re still in the middle of the pack, and we just need to continue to work to get to that next level,” Rowell said.

Comanche travels to Bethel this week for the first round of the Class 2A playoffs. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.