Offense comes alive, players keep promise to coach for birthday

By Jayson Larson Sports Editor

Trinity Valley Community College Offensive Coordinator John Launius turned 40 last week.

To mark the occasion, his offensive unit promised a gift: on Saturday, they’d score 50 for him.

Forgive them if they didn’t exactly keep their promise. Instead, they passed the half-century mark and kept going in a 53-28 win over the Northeastern Oklahoma Golden Norsemen to open Southwest Junior College Football Conference play at Bruce Field.

When the final buzzer had sounded, the Cardinals posted the 15th highest point total in school history and the most points since their 54-13 win over Cisco in 1993.

Behind an incredible game from the offensive line, backs Chad Winbush, Josh Johnson and Bo Walker amassed most of the team’s 445 rushing yards. Winbush had 200 yards on just 14 carries and Johnson ran 16 times for 161 yards.

All told, TVCC (3-0, 1-0 SWJCFC) racked up an eye-popping 648 yards of total offense.

“Wow, that’s amazing,” Launius said when informed of the offensive stats. “That’s just a testament to these kids. I’m just real proud of the effort.”

Johnson took the first handoff of the game 59 yards, signaling a coming trend. He touched the ball three times on the first drive, with the last resulting in a 4-yard touchdown run. The extra point was blocked — one of three to be knocked down for TVCC — leaving the score at 6-0.

More quick scores were to follow over the next 60 minutes. Five of the Cardinals’ seven touchdowns came on drives that included five plays or less.

“We’ve got some playmakers,” TVCC Head Coach Brad Smiley said. “We knew in recruiting that we were going to have some kids this season that, when they get the ball, they’d have a chance to go the distance.”

Following Johnson’s touchdown, Ernesto Guerra nailed a 37-yard field goal — the first of two on the afternoon — to give TVCC a 9-0 lead.

NEO (1-2, 0-1) answered back with a nine-play, 80-yard drive that ended with Jermaine Sherman’s 12-yard touchdown run. Matt Berrey’s PAT cut the lead to 9-7 with five minutes left in the first quarter.

The Cardinals increased their lead to 15-7 when Garrett Beal hit Jeremiah Williams for a 66-yard touchdown that included a nice run after the catch. The score came on the second play of the drive.

Johnson’s second touchdown of the game, again from four yards out, pushed the lead to 23-7.

The Golden Norsemen battled back to trim the deficit to a touchdown six minutes later when Josh Morris scored on his own four-yard run to leave the score at 23-15.

Beal and the Cardinals started their next drive on the TVCC 20 and subsequently went 80 yards in just three plays, capped by Johnson’s third touchdown of the game, from 17 yards away. That left the halftime score at 30-15.

Winbush effectively put the game away on TVCC’s first offensive play of the second half when he dashed and darted 85 yards for a touchdown. Guerra’s PAT made it 37-15.

Beal would later add a 1-yard scoring run, and Walker put a cherry on top of the win with a 39-yard run.

NEO was forced to play most of the second half without quarterback Brandon Rogers, who entered the week as the conference’s leader passer. He appeared to be injured after a huge hit on a sack by defensive end Brandon Harris, although he stayed in the game for a few more plays. It marked the second straight game one of the conference’s leading players has come to Bruce Field and left with an injury. Ketarus Stanton, a Cisco running back who was leading the conference in rushing, was injured Sept. 5.

The Cards will see Stanton again next Saturday when they travel to Cisco for a 7 p.m. game.