On Saturday, Oct. 13, the football team took on the Lions from Missouri Southern State University at Yager Stadium. Despite fumbling the ball multiple times, the Ichabods still dominated the game and won with a convincing 63-7 score.

The scoring started as red-shirt freshman running back, Kamani Addison, took the ball to the house with a 21-yard run leading the Ichabods 7-0.  His touchdown run capped off a nine-play drive that saw the Ichabods traverse over 60 yards downfield. In the very next MSSU drive, the Lions marched the ball to the Ichabods red-zone and had to settle for a field goal. Senior safety Heath Tucker broke through the line and blocked the field goal. Josh Wright, junior defensive back, recovered the blocked field goal and took it 90 yards for another Ichabod touchdown, extending the lead to 14-0.  After stalling out, the Lions punted the ball back to Washburn. Then the Ichabods muffed the punt and gave the ball back to the Lions. The next Lions drive wound up the same way when Corey Ballentine, (Senior, Defensive Back) blocked their field goal attempt, again keeping the Lions off of the scoreboard. Then Washburn started driving down the field again. However, the Ichabods gave the ball right back to the Lions after a fumble by Hunter Browning. The Lions used the momentum gained off of the turnover and scored on the ensuing drive to cut the lead to 14-7.

The Ichabods regrouped and gained a lot of ground through their rushing attack. They found the endzone again after a 12-play, 75-yard drive as Mitch Schurig, sophomore quarterback, ran it from 1-yard out, giving the Ichabods a 21-7 lead. The Ichabods increased their lead again as Ian Trapp, red-shirt freshman quarterback, found  James Brania-Hopp, senior wide receiver, in the endzone and hit him from 5-yards out to make the score 28-7. The Ichabods would score one more time before the end of the half as Will Evans, red-shirt freshman runningback, would punch it in from 1-yard out to continue the thrashing, 35-7.

The Washburn defense stopped the Lions to begin the second half. The Ichabods would continue to tack onto their lead after sophomore running back Curtis Whitten ran it through the MSSU defense for a touchdown, giving the Ichabods a lead at 42-7.  The WU defense got to turn to score when sophomore defensive back Dwane Simmons intercepted a MSSU pass and returned it for a touchdown. With 4:43 seconds left to go in the third quarter, Schurig found junior wide receiver Austen Hubert wide open for a 10-yard touchdown pass. After another made PAT by Perry Schmiedeler, senior kicker, Washburn had a lead 56-7.

As the game was out of hand, neither team scored in the fourth quarter until Trapp ran free to the end-zone. Washburn won 63-7.

On a day where many people got playing time, Garrett Barnett-Kruger, sophomore linebacker, excelled and registered five tackles on the day.

“I feel like I played pretty good. I did my assignment, I did my job,” Barnett-Kruger said. “I really felt like I made the right reads so that others could come in and get the job done. I thought I could have attacked the ball a little better. On defense, when the run fit opens up, you gotta attack it.”

After putting up 63 points, Addison was happy about how the offense was running, but knew there were areas where they had to improve.

“That first touchdown was a game opener, it really set the tempo for the rest of our players and our team, it set the tempo for the defense and everything just went good after that,” Addison said. “We executed very well on driving down the field and getting plays in. We need to work on our ball security and our fundamentals and we should be good for the rest of the season.”

The football team’s record improved to 4-3 after this commanding win, but their season isn’t over yet. For their next game, they will travel to take on Central Oklahoma on Oct. 20 in Edmond, Oklahoma. The team’s next home game will be against Emporia State on Saturday, Oct. 27.