FOOTBALL: Passing Attack Helps East Roar Past Millard North

LINCOLN–(KLMS Sept. 17)–Six touchdown passes from Noah Walters sparked the Lincoln East offense on Friday night, as the No. 7 Spartans routed Millard North 56-20 in high school football at Seacrest Field, in a game heard on ESPN Lincoln.

Walters threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Billie Stephenson within the first two minutes of the game to put East up 7-0. Then with 3:17 left in the first quarter, Walters found wide-receiver Cooper Erikson on a 90-yard touchdown toss to go up 14-0. On the ensuing kick, Millard North got a kick return to the East 42-yard line and a face mask penalty against the Spartans gave the Mustangs the ball at the 27-yard line. A few plays later, quarterback Ben Weindel scored on a quarterback keeper, but the point after failed and Millard North trailed 14-6 with 2:33 remaining.

On the next Spartan possession, Walters found receiver Luke Greisen on a 72-yard touchdown pass to extend the East lead to 21-6. Millard North kept the ball most of the second quarter, grinding out a long drive using the run game. Weindel scored again on a 1-yard quarterback keeper and scored the two-point conversion to pull the Mustangs within seven, 21-14 with 4:44 left before halftime.

A quick East drive was capped on a 29-yard touchdown pass to Stephenson to extend the lead at 28-14 at halftime. Walters had thrown for 300 yards in the first half.

On one of the rare occasions Millard North threw the football, the Mustangs capitalized on a 35-yard scoring toss to Isaiah McMorris with 7:32 remaining in the third quarter and crawled to within reach at 28-20. But East just took off from there and didn’t look back.

Running back Jaelyn Welch scored on a 23-yard run, Erikson caught a 65-yard touchdown pass to help the Spartans to a 42-20 lead heading to the fourth quarter.

East got two more scoring strikes in the final quarter, AJ Seizys caught a 22-yard touchdown pass and junior backup quarterback Harrison Biester scored on an 8-yard run to seal the game.

Unofficially, the Spartans had 613 yards of total offense.