Trojan FB opens with Win

 The West Central football team opened their season with a win Friday night at home against Culver Community 41-21. It took the  Trojans 2 plays to go 50 yards on the opening drive when Chantz Marlatt scored on a 47 yard touchdown run. The Trojans went for the two point conversion and succeeded to go up 8-0. Culver answered with a touchdown drive of their own on their first series of the game, but the two point conversion failed, and the score was 8-6. (QB) Michael Hamilton had his hand in on the next three scores for the Trojans scoring on runs of 46 and 38 yards, while also connecting with Chantz Marlatt for a 11 yard touchdown pass. The Trojans took advantage of some takeaways in the first half and changed the momentum of the game. Late in the 2nd quarter with the score 28-6, the Cavaliers capitalized on the Trojans turning the ball over deep inside their own territory and two plays later the Cavaliers Tucker Schultz scored from 2 yards out and a successful 2 point conversion made the score 28-14 going into halftime. In the second half both teams started the 3rd quarter exchanging a pair of punts and it wasn't until the late in the 3rd quarter that the Trojans got on the board again, this time by newcomer Hunter Holliday from 5 yards out. The PAT failed and the score was 34-14 going into the 4th quarter. Culver scored with about 3 minutes left in the game on a touchdown throw from Collin Stevens to Micah Budzinski from 13 yards out. The score was 34-21 with the Cavaliers lined up to attempt an on-side kick. The Trojans Dylan Ingram recovered the on-side kick attempt and marched the ball down the field and putting the exclamation point on the evening victory with a 22 yard touchdown scamper by Michael Hamilton, his third TD of the evening.
    The Trojans were led offensively by Michael Hamilton, who had 215 yards on 24 carries and 3 TD's. Chantz Marlatt contributed 75 yards on 8 carries with 1 TD and Parker Fritz had 53 yards on 9 carries. The Trojans rushed for 363 yards on the ground and 374 total yards offensively. The Trojan defense was led by Hunter Holliday with 7.5 total tackles. Hunter's brother Spencer added 7 tackles and an interception, while Keegan Dillman had 4 tackles, a fumble recovery and a interception.
     The Trojans travel to Caston next Friday to start conference play against the Comets who also started 1-0 this year beating Triton 28-20.