Alva Review-Courier -

BLACKWELL – The Alva High School Goldbugs sailed to a marginal victory over the Blackwell Maroons to start their season off on a high note Friday night.

Though Alva made Blackwell give up the ball quickly in their first possession of the night, the Goldbugs had a slight hiccup on the punt as they fumbled the return to give the ball right back to the Maroons with fresh set of downs.

Blackwell began to move the chains down the field on their second try, getting all the way to Alva's 36-yard line, but a timely interception from Reece Martin shifted the momentum back to the Goldbugs as they took over at their own 38-yard line with 7:29 left in the first.

Alva focused on the run in their first offensive possession as Dalton Hess and Davion Murrow had big gains to put the Goldbugs inside the red zone. From 19 yards out, the Goldbugs were able to catch the Maroons unaware, as Hess received the hand-off up the left side for their first touchdown of the night to lead 6-0.

Alva's offense got very little time to rest on the sideline as they quickly got to see more action after Blackwell fumbled on the kick return and it was recovered by Lane Scarbrough at Blackwell's 27-yard line.

The Goldbugs faced more resistance from Blackwell's defense this time, moving only two yards up the field, but Murrow found a wide-open field up the left side to drive the ball to the end zone on a 25-yard gain. After a completed pass from Mitchell Meyer to T.W. Beiswanger for a successful two-point convers, Alva led Blackwell 14-0 with 3:54 left in the first.

Alva scored once more in the first quarter with less than three minutes left as they started the drive on their 49-yard line. After a nine-yard gain from Hess to start the drive, Meyer picked up Alva's first-down after dropping back to pass and opting to run the ball for 17 yards to the 24-yard line.

Murrow later kept the drive alive on a third-and-four picking up 16-yard gain to put the ball on the two, leaving Hess take the ball the rest of the way for a touchdown. After a successful extra-point kick from Cameron Gordon, Alva led the Maroons 21-0 with just four seconds left in the first quarter.

Alva scored twice more in the second before going into halftime. Their next drive led to a touchdown after a 53-yard touchdown run from Murrow put Alva ahead 28-0. Murrow picked up another rushing touchdown to close out the first half from five-yards out to give the Goldbugs a commanding 34-0 lead over Blackwell.

In the first half, the coaching staff and the Goldbugs knew that there were going to be mismatches to exploit with Blackwell's press-man defense, and with a 34-0 lead going into halftime, Alva took advantage early and often.

"They chose to leave the box open for us so we knew that we were going to be able to exploit that," head coach Taylor Schwerdtfeger said. "We felt like that we were a lot better up front than we had been in the past, as far as our guys have a lot of experience, and we have two backs with (Dalton) Hess and Davion (Murrow) that can hit the hole and do impressive things with the ball.

"Our plan was to attack the middle quick and see how they (Blackwell) responded and if they responded. It worked out well for us."

For the second half, it was the passing game that saw success as Meyer was able to link up with three different receivers for their final three touchdowns of the night in just the third quarter. Coach Scwerdtfeger admitted that this part of the game can take a little bit more time to click for teams.

"The passing game is a lot of timing," said Schwerdtfeger. "With it being our first game, and having very limited live snaps against another opponent, that's something that comes a little bit later.

"Early in the game we missed some that were wide open. Mitch (Meyer) threw a great ball to Davion in the first half and just caught it six inches out of bounds in the goal line. Just things like that. Small timing is off."

Timing was on for Meyer and the receivers in the second half as he threw for Alva's final three touchdowns.

Starting the first drive of the half from their own 35-yard line, Alva began their 10 play, 65-yard march down the field that resulted in a 26-yard touchdown pass to T.W. Beiswanger. With 8:39 left in the third, Alva led Blackwell 40-0 after the extra-point attempt from Gordon was no good.

On Alva's very next possession, Meyer found Gordon on their final eighth play of the drive for an 11-yard touchdown pass to put the score at 47-0.

The Goldbugs scored their final touchdown of the night with 2:14 left in the third quarter, but struggled with penalties as they had to start the drive on their own 49-yard line on a first-down with 35 yards to go. Despite that, Alva ended the drive with a 47-yard touchdown pass to Murrow that put the final score at 54-0 for Alva's first victory to start the season.

With this big win on the road, Alva has momentum going into their week two of the season and the coaching staff is pleased with what they have seen from the team.

"You never know going into the first game of the year who's going to be what," Schwerdtfeger said. "They're (Blackwell) a 3A school with a lot of numbers and some good athletes, and they're going to be good eventually – I don't know if it's going to be this season or the next – but they're just starting their program out. We're in the third year of ours, so we're a little bit more polished and things are further along for us.

"To open the season the way we did I was extremely pleased with the effort and execution. We have to shave up a few things. We had some penalties that we need to cut out, but that's just early season things. They weren't anything that doesn't normally happen, it's just things that come with experience, but to open the season like that was impressive."

Stats

The Alva Goldbugs had a big day on both sides of the ball, as they ran 60 plays for 509 yards to average 8.5 yards per play. In their running game, Alva carried the ball 47 times for 347 yards and five touchdowns coming in the first half. In the air, the Goldbugs were 9-of-14 for 162 yards and three touchdowns.

For Alva's defense, they limited Blackwell to just 40 plays for 116 yards to average 2.9 yards a play. Blackwell's ground game was just 39 yards for 29 carries, while they threw for 77 yards, completing only 11 of their 35 passes and turning the ball over for four interceptions.

Meyer completed his nine passes out of 14 throws for 162 yards and three touchdowns. Meyer also contributed to the running game carrying the ball nine times for 53 yards.

Leslie Nation

A swarm of Goldbugs – Lane Scarbrough (88), Kellen Claflin (71) and Arturo Cisneros (20) – are there to rush the quarterback to try and force a turnover.

Hess carried the ball 15 times just shy of 100 yards with 99 total for two touchdowns and Murrow picked up 166 yards on the ground on 13 carries for three touchdowns. Murrow picked up his final touchdown in the third quarter catching four passes for 96 yards.

Beiswanger caught three passes for 38 yards and a touchdown while Gordon made two grabs for 28 yards and a touchdown.

On defense, Lane Scarbrough picked up 12 tackles, two recovered fumbles and 2 sacks for a big loss of gains. Jacob Faulkner had four tackles and one interception;, Beiswanger had nine tackles; Gavin Perez had one interception; Tristan Swonger had a tackle, one forced fumble and one interception; Arturor Cisneros had 13 tackles and one sack; Dawson Manning had nine tackles; Samuel Toone had eight tackles and one forced fumble; Daniel Toone had six tackles; and Darian Smith had six tackles.