A fast start didn’t help the Laramie Plainsmen, as they dropped their third straight game on Saturday in Casper to Kelly Walsh, 49-28.
Laramie (1-4) was originally scheduled to host the game on Friday night at Deti Stadium. A decision was made at 3 p.m. last Friday to postpone the game due to very poor air quality in Laramie because of the Mullen Fire west of town. It was also moved to Casper because of unknown air quality issues on Saturday in Laramie
The Plainsmen capitalized on three Kelly Walsh turnovers in the first half for a 21-7 lead. Matthew Maiava recovered a Trojans fumble in the end zone on the second play from scrimmage for a 7-0 lead.
After KW tied the game at 7-7, the Plainsmen turned a Graham Jacques interception into a TD drive that was capped off by a screen pass for a touchdown from Jake Vigen to Isaac Sell from 32-yards out. After a fumble recovery by LHS, Vigen found David Tangeman from 9-yards out for a 21-7 lead with 8:40 left in the first half.
The Trojans scored twice inside the last four minutes of the first half, which tied it at 21-21 by halftime.
Kelly Walsh (3-2) scored on its first four possessions of the second half and kept Laramie from scoring. That built the Trojans lead to 49-21.
Vigen connected with Tangeman on a 14-yard TD pass with just over a minute left. That produced the final margin of 49-28.
Reed added there was some weird timing of things, but they’ve got to learn to overcome adversity.
“It’s just a matter of that perseverance right now and letting some stuff go. We’re still in a learning curve with that. We’ve got to do a better job, as coaches, to lead by example and to hold our kids accountable to that standard, try to put things in the rearview mirror, and be able to go on to the next play and not dwell on things… We can try to make all the excuses in the world, but we got beat by a better team tonight.”
Kelly Walsh finished with 588 yards of total offense, which included 361 yards rushing. Cam Burkett ran for 193 yards and four touchdowns. The Trojans overcame three turnovers and 159 penalty yards.
The Plainsmen had 353 yards on offense. Vigen threw for a career-high 236 yards and three TDs with one interception. Sell added 124 rushing yards. Laramie had two turnovers and 130 penalty yards.
LHS goes back on the road on Friday to play the Rock Springs Tigers. Kick-off is at 6 p.m.
