SPEARMAN – For a third straight year, bragging rights on Highway 15 remain with the Gruver Greyhounds.
Gruver used a fast start to jump on Hansford County rival Spearman with an aggressive attack resulting in a 47-36 victory on Friday night at Lynx Stadium.
A recipe of balance on offense and a defensive unit out to make a statement were the perfect formula for the Greyhounds (2-0 overall) to tame the Lynx (0-2) for a third year in a row.
“This is a rivalry game,” Gruver head coach Kurt Haberthur said. “I’m more glad when it’s over than anything else. We can now focus forward on things we need to do and the communities can get back to rooting for each other. We were really sharp early, especially on defense. Spearman did some good things and they are really well coached. This was a big win for us to keep getting some momentum.”
The Greyhound defense set the tone from the start keeping the Lynx off-balance getting pressure on quarterback Jailen Vasquez and took away the edge from speedster Hudson Swan. Frustrating the Lynx early, and already up 7-0, Gruver forced a momentum swing on the Lynx second drive of the game.
With the ball near midfield, Spearman fullback Brayson Goodheart was met at the line by a host of Greyhound defenders. Going to the ground, the ball popped out allowing Gruver linebacker Bo Cowan to pick it up and go 47 yards for a scoop and score touchdown putting Gruver up 14-0 at the 7:49 mark of the opening stanza.
“We did a great job of staying in our gaps early,” Haberthur said. “We played physical and I thought early we took them out of what they wanted to do and are offense helped us. We forced that big turnover and that was huge.”
When Spearman did respond, the Greyhounds did a great job of answering right back.
On the ensuing drive off the Gruver touchdown, the Lynx put a 94-yard drive together highlighted by a 44-yard touchdown scamper by Vasquez cutting the deficit at 14-6 to open the second quarter.
The Spearman rally didn’t last long with Gruver moving right back down the field. That’s where the Greyhounds went to power back Quinn Conyers took over. On a 1st and 10 at the Lynx 15-yard line, Conyers hit the hole with a purpose, broke tackles and somehow stayed on his feet for a touchdown that had the Greyhounds right back up 21-6 with 8:03 in the half.
“I was proud of Quinn,” Haberthur said. “He got reps last year in a loaded backfield and he did a great job. Now, he’s one of the key guys we go to. He is a strong young man that works hard in the weight room and knows how to finish off runs.”
Gruver started pulling away following the Conyers TD. On the next possession, quarterback Jett Pittman found a wide open Mason Lankford down the sideline for a 44-yard pitch and catch and right before halftime it was Pittman once more rolling out and connecting to Cudd for his second score of the half with only seven ticks left on the clock as the Greyhounds took a 33-14 into the break.
Spearman didn’t quite as Haberthur expected, and had the offense going in the second half but Gruver was able to keep the Lynx at arms length.
Gruver ended the game with 409 total yards. Pittman was efficient once again going 10-for-17 totaling 209 yards with four touchdown tosses. His main target was Cudd, who snagged three catches for three touchdowns for 52 yards. Mason Lankford also had a big outing with four catches for a team-high 91 yards with a score and Conyers piled up 59 yards rushing with a score and added 74 yards receiving with another TD.
Defensively, Cowan was all over the field finishing with 21 tackles and a sack to go with his touchdown. Lankford added 15 tackles and Cudd chipped in 11.
Spearman’s Vasquez played well rushing for 166 yards with two scores and threw for 147 yards.
Photo gallery by Mairyn Flores Sosa:
