Magni sets record; Miners roll past Braves

Linton-Stockton football coach Steve Weber (right) has a chat with his offense. The Miners defeated host Tecumseh 68-13 Friday night in the opening round of Class A Sectional 40. (By B.J. Hargis/Greene County Daily World). [Order this photo]

LYNNVILLE -- Linton-Stockton senior tailback Evan Magni rushed for a school-record 322 yards and four touchdowns on just a dozen carries to lead the Miners past Tecumseh 68-13 in their Class A Sectional 40 opener.

Magni sliced and diced through a beleaguered Braves defense for scoring gallops of 49 and 88 yards in the second quarter and 4 on his way past Matt Gamble's record of 278 yards set in 1998.

"'Actually it feels pretty awesome, it's a record that I never even thought about touching," said Magni. "They kept giving me the ball and I kept getting big yards. It's pretty easy when you have good blocking up front."

The blocking Magni referred to led to a whopping 482 yards of total offense -- all on the ground. It was spread between Magni's record-setting performance and 10 others including Kaleb Bridges who scored three touchdowns on just eight carries where he accumulated 54 yards and Stefan Sparks who picked up 40 markers on just nine totes with one trip to pay dirt in the first quarter.

"We played great, I'm excited," Linton-Stockton coach Steve Weber said. "They fired off the ball and executed perfectly offensively."

That execution was aided in the first quarter by a pair of botched punt attempts by Tecumseh's Jason Gowers on successive drives. Both fumbled snaps set the Miners' offense up deep in the red zone and both times they converted.

The first came with the ball sitting at the Tecumseh 21-yard line and ended up at the one. The second snafu left the football sitting at the Braves 16 and both times Bridges hauled it into the end zone in just one play.

That staked the Miners to a quick 13-0 lead that was enhanced by a 5-yard jaunt from Sparks and Bridges third score -- this one for 13 yards -- that pushed the gap to 27-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Linton-Stockton kept the pressure going in the second quarter when Magni took over the scoring duties with two of his long scrambles through the Braves defenders.

Offensively the Braves were left with little to show for their efforts. Seven different players touched the ball and only two -- quarterback Kolton Chapman and Kyle Brunner -- were able to produce positive yardage.

Chapman rushed for a team-leading 75 while Brunner added 27. The remainder of the Braves rushers were dropped for a combined minus 40 yards.

The Miners added more insult to the Tecumseh injury by picking off two of Chapman's passes and falling on two fumbles.

The only time the Braves were able to make any headway was in the fourth quarter when the Linton-Stockton junior varsity yielded a pair of touchdowns, one from Chapman and one from Brunner.

"We played very good," Weber said. "I couldn't be more happy."

The Miners will host North Knox, who defeated Union (Dugger) 28-8 at Roy Williams Field at 7 p.m. Friday in the second round of the football playoffs

MINERS 68, BRAVES 13

Linton-Stockton 27 14 20 7 -- 68

Tecumseh 0 0 0 13 -- 13

FIRST QUARTER

L -- Kaleb Bridges 1 run (Dyllanne Deischer kick), 8:35

L -- Bridges 16 run (kick failed), 6:32

L -- Stefan Sparks 5 run (Bridges run), 4:45

L -- Bridges 13 run (kick failed), 1:53

SECOND QUARTER

L -- Evan Magni 49 run (Deischer kick), 11:43

L -- Magni 88 run (Deischer kick), 8:15

THIRD QUARTER

L -- Magni 48 run (kick failed), 9:50

L -- Magni 13 run (Deischer kick), 4:00

L -- Austin Karazsia 3 run (Deischer kick), 1:50

FOURTH QUARTER

L -- Nathan Sparks 11 run (Deischer kick), 7:59

T -- Kyle Brunner 3 run (Diego Sanchez kick), 4:10

T -- Kolton Chapman 6 run (run failed), 3:05

L T

First downs 14 15

Rushes-yards 46-482 38-67

Passing yards 0 72

Total yards 482 139

C-A-I 0-3-0 5-36-2

Punts-yards 1-50 1-10

Penalites-yards 6-41 6-45

Return yards 57 43

Fumbles-lost 6-4 5-2

Time of possession 27:30 20:30

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Linton-Stockton, Evan Magni 12-322, Stefan Sparks 9-40, Kaleb Bridges 8-54, Tylor Scott 4-13, Caleb Burns 4-13, Austin Karazsia 2-8, Caleb Bradbury 3-11, Nick Sparks 3-20, Kenton Helton 2-10, Ryan Littlejohn 1-7. Tecumseh, Aaron Funkhouser 3- (-1), Jason Gowers 5- (-22), Kyle Brunner 13-27, Kolton Chapman 14-75, Kyle Tevevault 1-(-2), Dalton Capper 1-(-1), Jesse Freimiller 1-(-9).

RECEIVING -- Tecumseh, Funkhouser 1-4, Gowers 5-51, Jordan Oxley 2-5, Nick Williams 1-10, Aaron Pace 1-2.

PASSING -- Linton-Stockton, Tylor Scott 0-2-0, Karazsia 0-1-0. Tecumseh, Chapman 5-34-2-72, Gowers 0-1-0, Capper 0-1-0.