Simply amazing

Just a massive night on the football field.

Under the bright Friday night lights in Mounds, Wayne’s Ethan Mullins ran for 523 yards on 45 carries.

He crossed the goal line for eight touchdowns in Wayne’s 69-49 win over the Eagles.

Mullins averaged nearly 12 yards per carry.

On 45 carries.

“Obviously he played out of his mind,” said Wayne head football coach Brandon Sharp. “When a player gets that many carries the average yards per carry isn’t that high.”

Mullins scored on runs of 2, 40, 12, 3, 17, 52, 1 and 67 yards.

He did all that in only three quarters of work – only attempting two runs in the fourth quarter when Wayne needed to pick up first downs.

It was an outstanding performance in a wild game with massive momentum swings and plenty of offense.

As a team Wayne rushed the ball for an eye-popping 679 yards on 77 attempts.

Sharp said the success on the ground was truly a team effort.

“It was a great night offensively,” he said. “The line blocked really well and our receivers blocked great on the edge and down field.”

Wayne’s linemen were Billy Montgomery at center, guards Briar Norman and Andy Lee and tackles Austin Box and Lane Meyer. Tight end Colton Miller also played a big role in the team’s success.

Mounds made the game interesting in the fact that they refused to let Wayne put them away.

The Eagles returned a kickoff for a touchdown in a play that could have ended with Wayne having the ball instead.

“Maddox Mantooth drills their return guy and the ball pops up in the air and into the arms of one of their players and he returns it,” Sharp said. “He was the guy we were trying to kick away from.”

Then with Wayne up 42-14, and the ball, with about three minutes to play Sharp called a play action pass to throw to James Spencer.

Spencer got behind the defense but the ball was slightly under thrown and was picked off.

Mounds punched it in and Wayne went into the halftime locker room leading 42-21 instead of 42-7.

“I take the blame there, I got greedy,” Sharp said. “They weren’t respecting or guarding our receivers but I normally don’t do things like that.”

Mounds got the ball to start the second half and promptly scored to open the third quarter and the game tightened a little but Wayne was in control.

“It wasn’t as close as it looked and we dominated up front,” Sharp said. “I’ve been coaching 20 years and have never seen a game like that. It was a wild one.”

Wayne’s defense played well in the first half but struggled to get off the field in the second half, mostly due to the passing game.

“We knew their quarterback would be good and he winged it on us,” Sharp said. “They also have really athletic receivers. They scored a couple late touchdowns at the end when we’re just trying to end the game and they’re chunking it all over the place.”

Mounds scored twice in the fourth, their last touchdown coming on a score with 55 seconds remaining in the game after Wayne had fumbled.

Mullins was busy on Friday night, also recording a team-high eight tackles and forcing a fumble and recovering a fumble.

Brannon Lewelling tallied seven tackles – as did Jairo Hernandez who was back after he broke his arm earlier this season.

Conner Crawford was in the lineup and made four tackles and a quarterback sack.

Spencer had one tackle and intercepted a pass.

Wewoka

Wayne travels to Wewoka Friday night where a very athletic Tigers team awaits them.

“This is the best Wewoka team I’ve seen,” Sharp said. “They are loaded and are by far the most athletic team we’ll see this year.”

They are led by quarterback Kobey Stephens.

“He is an athlete, always looking down field and he can go by you in a hurry,” Sharp said. “Their wide outs are as good as I’ve seen in a while. Their coach is doing a great job.”

Wewoka’s (3-2) only losses are to Seminole and Stroud.

And they had Stroud beaten until about 1:20 left in the game when Stroud scored a go-ahead touchdown.

“It will be a challenge for us but we’ll compete,” Sharp said. “We have confidence and will play hard for four quarters.”

Wewoka will operate out of the shotgun spread on offense and use Stephens’ legs on a lot of quarterback run.

On defense they have shown both a 3-4 and 4-3 front.

“They have so many athletes everywhere and they have great team speed,” Sharp said. 

Notes

Head Coach Brandon Sharp nominated Ethan Mullins for Heart of Oklahoma Offensive Player of the Week.

“He also had a couple kick returns that went for 25 and 30 yards,” Sharp said.

Sharp nominated the entire offensive line for players of the week as well.

Mullins received the nod for Defensive Player of the Week for his work on that side of the ball.

“I’m proud of the guys and we’ve improved every week,” Sharp said. “That’s all you can ask for as a coach.”

Kickoff with Wewoka is set for 7 p.m.