Red Devils crush Plainsmen

By Wyoming Sports.org

EVANSTON -- Poor tackling and decision making came back to haunt the Laramie Plainsmen again as Evanston exploded for a 51-23 win Friday night in South Conference football action.

The Plainsmen couldn’t take down Evanston running back Cory Anthos, who ran for 239 yards, scoring five touchdowns. Laramie also committed 16 penalties -- many on personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct -- for 163 yards.

The Red Devils, 1-1 in league play and 2-3 overall, broke open a relatively close first half with 38 points in the final two quarters of play. The loss dropped the Plainsmen to 0-2 and 1-5.

It didn’t take long for the Red Devils to get some momentum, as Laramie fumbled the opening on-side kick and Evanston recovered, running it back to the LHS 28-yard line. Two players later Anthos ran it in from 31 yards out.

Laramie seemed to settle down defensively for much of the rest of the first half, but Evanston struck again to make it 13-0 late in the second quarter on a 32-yard screen pass from quarterback Brady Ehlers to Anthos.

The Plainsmen got a break thanks to a couple of late Evanston penalties and got on the scoreboard on a 29-yard field goal by Alex Zuniga to make it 13-3 at halftime.

What momentum the Plainsmen picked up at the end of the first half, the Red Devils -- particularly Anthos -- took away early in the third. His 44-yard touchdown run on the first possession made it 21-3.

The Plainsmen came right back with a nice drive and got into the end zone on a 20-yard run by junior wingback Luke Knapton, but Evanston answered on touchdown runs of 21 yards and 76 yards by Anthos to make it 35-10 heading into the fourth quarter.

Evanston linebacker Trent Beauxis then intercepted Laramie quarterback Coleton Wilson and ran it back 31 yards for the touchdown for a 44-10 lead. Wilson did get some revenge and scored on a big 85-yard run after originally rolling out on a play-action pass play.

The Plainsmen cut the lead to 44-23 on an 18-yard touchdown run by junior fullback Charles Swearingen, before the Red Devils closed the scoring on a 27-yard run by Cory Huntley with 3:27 to play.

The game was much closer statistically than on the scoreboard, as Evanston finished with 408 yards of total offense, to 360 for the Plainsmen. Laramie had 238 yards rushing on 46 carries, led by Wilson’s 111 yards. Swearingen added 84 yards and a score, followed by Knapton with 68 yards and junior Jon Sorenson with 55 yards.

Wilson was 4 of 14 passing for 32 yards.

The Plainsmen will look to bounce back Friday at home with Green River.