By CAYDEN SANDERS
Tiger Media Network
HOISINGTON — The Hoisington High School football team hosted Central Kansas League foe Pratt to open the season. The Cardinals controlled the Greenbacks as Hoisington earned a 34-8 win.
Pratt won the season-opener between the two teams a year ago.
“This win means a lot, especially being our first game,” said Hoisington senior running back Taylen Morales. “It’s one of our rival schools. We like to get after them. We lost last year, and we haven’t liked losing this matchup, but we got them back this time.”
Pratt scored first as sophomore quarterback Cade Liggett found senior tight end Arley Morrell for a 10-yard pitch. This past summer, Morrell committed to Colorado State University.
For the PAT, senior running back Cresten Pore ran to the near side pylon to push the score to 8-0 with 3:27 left in the first quarter.
From there, the Cardinals dominated, scoring 34 unanswered points.
“It took everything; it took a lot of time just making sure to get our bodies ready and preparing how to hit people,” Morales said about surrendering the opening score to Pratt (0-1). “I think that after that score, we knew that we had to play better — and that we did.”
Hoisington senior quarterback Mason Martin ran a quarterback option to the weak side to open the Cardinals’ scoring from 10 yards out with just 51 seconds remaining in the first period. The point after attempt was good, pulling the Cardinals (1-0) within 8-7.
The next score did not come until 1:29 left in the first half, as Morales ran 5 yards up the middle. Morales also put in the PAT, giving Hoisington its first lead at 14-7.
Morales scored on a 5-yard run from the wildcat formation, pushing the score to 21-8 at 5:19 in the third.
A 36-yard run by senior running back CJ Bryant pushed the score to 28-8 at the 10:47 mark in the fourth quarter.
Bryant continued the scoring in the fourth with a 12-yard run to cap the scoring with 7:48 left in the game.
Morales thought the community’s expectations and the program’s expectations were met for the Cardinals’ first game.
“I think we did make them tonight,” he said. “I think we showed that we are going to be a tough team on all sides of the ball, and play our physical brand of football. We’ll keep the momentum going into next week’s game.”
Hoisington finished the game with 373 yards of offense, while only 25 yards came through the air. Morales totaled 130 yards on 21 attempts with two touchdowns.
Pratt had 184 yards of offense, while earning only six first downs the entire game.
Pratt will have their home opener against Halstead on Friday.
Hoisington goes on the road in Week 2 to Hesston (1-0). The Swathers beat Halstead last week, 27-7.
“We will have the same week; it will start Monday,” Morales said. “We’ll go over film and what we’re putting in, and we’ll keep trying to work on things to get better. And we’ll practice hard all week, prepare for Hesston, go out and play our game next week.”
This story was written as part of INF 322: Sports Writing, a course in the Department of Informatics at Fort Hays State University.