For the fourth time in as many meetings, the Kearney Bulldogs took district rival Smithville out to a 92-highway woodshed. This time, for a 49-7 trouncing.

With three points on the board in the first quarter, courtesy of a Grant Bogert 33-yard field goal, the Kearney defense batted around the Smithville offense like a cat with a field mouse, allowing a 10-yard touchdown run by Warriors quarterback Quinten Morse.

*The defense opens a path for Quarterback Carter Temple. Photo by Kale Davis, Backroads Designs.*

By halftime, Kearney led 25-7, on three touchdowns – a Carter Temple to Kale Tucking pass, a 12-yard Carter Temple run, and with 36 seconds to go in the half, Temple unleashed a 66- yard bomb on a go-route to wide receiver Luke Denston for the score.

“They chose to really load the box on us and leave us man to man everywhere because apparently, we've heard Carter Temple can't throw passes, so I think somebody found out about that tonight,” said Kearney head coach Logan Minnick.

Kearney defensive tackle Grant Bogert added a statement-making, 2-point conversion after the 66-yard touchdown pass.

“We had that play written up all week in practice,” said Bogert. “It was designed for Carter to carry the ball, but in the game, he had to pitch it to me. I saw the grass in front of me, ran for it and scored.”

From there it was never close. Temple was 14 of 21 for 304 yards passing and 5 touchdowns. Kearney’s defense shifted the lumber truck into high gear behind defensive ends Grant Bogert, Lane Cook, and nose tackle Ryker Bruto pounding and pressuring Smithville quarterback Quinten Morse – allowing only 71 total passing yards on 6 of 15 attempts.

Smithville running back Lincoln Roske came into the game leading the metro with an average 165 yards per game. Kearney’s defense smothered Roske, holding him to 12 yards on 15 carries.

“Coach (Andy) Sawall hammers the idea that we can't give up anything down the middle and I think we did pretty well on that tonight,” said Bogert. “We force everything outside to the linebackers and they did well tackling outside, and at containing that running back (Roske). I know he's good. We gave him props for that.”

Kearney owned the second half scoring starting with a Temple to Kale Tucking 27-yard touchdown completion followed minutes later by a dazzling 55-yard flea-flicker, with Matt Lindsey selling the fake run and tossing the ball back to Temple, who threw to a wide-open Luke Denston for the score.

“They had eight people in the box, thinking we could only run the football,” said wide receiver Luke Denston. “We can throw it too. The passes were open in the middle of the field, down the field, all of them were open.”

Denston had four receptions for 193 yards and two touchdowns. The Kearney single-game receiving record is 210 yards.

“We're going to spread it around,” said Minnick. “And now you add a receiver to the mix who can take advantage of you, and you still have Caleb Stevens and Ian Schiller on the other side who can go at any point as well. I know the kids really enjoy the offense this year because we're not running every time, we're not throwing it every time, we're spreading the love to everybody.”

The Bulldogs finished the fourth quarter scoring on a 22-yard Temple to Emmons touchdown pass and a 22-yard Grant Bogert field goal. Bogert was a perfect 5 of 5 on extra points and 2 of 3 on field goals – the miss resulting from a glancing ricochet off the left upright.

For the third straight week, Kearney forced the turbo clock on their opponent. After three games, the Bulldog offense is scoring an average 46.6 points per game with a defense allowing only three points per game.

“So proud of our kids’ effort,” said Minnick. “You know that's a really good football team over there, but when we execute and play at our ability level, we're a pretty good football team too.”

In their first meeting ever, Kearney plays Rockhurst at Rockhurst next week, September 18.

KPGZ News – Mike Davis contributed to this story.