SPRINGFIELD – You could say that Thurston’s 42-21 victory Friday night over Crater was a snap.
All three Crater touchdowns came as the result of issues with Thurston’s punt team. Two balls were snapped over the punter’s head, while another line-drive punt by the Colts was caught on a dead run by Crater’s Scott Price, who returned it untouched for a 74-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
Otherwise, the Colts dominated in virtually every other aspect of the game.
“We were down to our third long snapper,” Thurston coach Justin Starck said. “But after watching film, we really played well on offense and defense. Vaun Halstead ran the ball really well, our starting quarterback Noah Blair was 12-for-12 passing, and Walker Bonar had a big game in the receiving category.”
Now that Thurston (2-2) has pocketed its first home victory of the season, it can focus on hosting rival Springfield in this Friday’s showdown. It’s a week all the players look forward to, but Starck said the coaching staff treats it like any other game.
“Nothing changes for us. We have a system and a regimen that we follow … we have a lot of respect for them but we’ll give them our best shot.”
Crater’s offensive line was beaten so badly that the Comets managed only 7 yards rushing. By contrast, Thurston ran for 174 yards.
And the offense was clicking, even connecting for 28 yards on a halfback pass from Darien Witham back to the quarterback Blair. Whatever the Colts wanted to do, they did, with ease.
Still, Crater put up a valiant fight. The Colts were saved by an inadvertent whistle with 5:25 left when they lost a fumble near their own 10-yard line. But due to the mistaken whistle, the teams were told to replay the down, and Halstead then had runs of 9, 33 and 21 yards – the last one for a touchdown – to put the finishing touches on the victory at the 1:52 mark.
It was that close to being a one-score game.
Friday night’s Springfield-Thurston game will be the biggest game in town, regardless of how close it winds up being.
“They have a lot of good athletes and we have a lot of respect for them,” Starck said. “The Farm will be rocking, that’s for sure. Since we’re having some construction work done on one side, additional seating is being provided for Springfield fans.”
