Zane Trace flexed their muscle on both sides of the ball Friday in a 47-7 rout of Greenfield McClain, in the final week of non-conference football for SVC teams.
The (2-1) Pioneers plowed through the (0-3) Tigers defense for 479 total yards, including 344 rushing en-route to the convincing victory. Quarterback Ty Shanton added 135 yards on 12/21 passing, including 1 TD. He also ran for another. Etheridge Games led the offensive charge rushing for 155 yards on 17 carries, scoring 1 touchdown. Will Palmer added 86 yards on only 6 carries, scoring 2 TD's.
The Zane Trace defense held McClain to 219 total yards. A defensive stand early in the game, where McClain recovered a ZT fumble, then proceeded to drive 15 plays inside the Pioneers 10 yard line, before ZT held on downs at the 6 yard line. That's where the Pioneers offense exploded, scoring on an 88 yard/3 play drive at 2:34 when Ty Shanton ran for a 7 yard TD. Christian Fetters PAT kick made it 7-0.
Zane Trace made it 14-0 when Shanton tossed a 5 yard TD pass to Jordan Waller with :09 left in the first quarter, followed by Fetters PAT. Fetters would convert a 28 yard field goal at 7:08 of the second quarter for a 17-0 lead, capping a 73 yard/9 play drive.
Eli Karst intercepted a McClain pass, leading to the Pioneers next score one play later at 3:44, on a 14 yard Etheridge Games TD run. The PAT snap was bad, leading to no extra point and a 23-0 lead. Zane Trace got the ball back again and would score on a 23 yard field goal by Christian Fetters with :08 remaining for a 26-0 halftime lead.
ZT made it 33-0 at 5:35 of the third quarter when Will Palmer raced 37 yards for a touchdown, capping a 56 yard/4 play drive. Palmer scored again with 7:36 to play in the game, completing a 43 yard/6 play drive. The Tigers made their only score of the night on a 58 yard TD run by Braden Goldsberry with 3:46 left in the game, capping a 75 yard/4 play drive.
The Pioneers rounded up the scoring on a Mason Lawrence 59 yard TD run as the back-up quarterback, completing a 69 yard/2 play drive for a 47-7 win.
The Pioneers "D" sacked the Tigers quarterback 4 times, for minus 28 yards and forced 4 turnovers. Three of those were interceptions by Mason Lawrence, Eli Karst and Drew Rittenhouse. Harley McNichols recovered a fumble.
One of the few downsides to the ZT win, was committing three turnovers of their own.
Zane Trace opens SVC play Friday night when they host (1-2) Westfall.
Pioneers Coach Don Kunz (photo below)
Find the podcast of the Zane Trace vs McClain football game on the link at the bottom of this page...