Devils level Lincoln Lynx, await game with Hornets

Better than advertised.

It’s hard to argue with that assessment of the Noxon Red Devil football team after the West End boys ran over and squashed flat the visiting Lincoln Lynx 70-0 at Jenny Lampshire Field in Noxon Friday.

“The boys played a lot better than I expected them to right out of the gate like that,” coach Bart Haflich said. “That was a good way to start the season.”

Now 1-0 in Western C 6-Man action, the Red Devils do not play again until Sept. 7 when they host White Sulphur Springs, another team with State C playoff hopes, in what is shaping up to be a key early-season matchup. White Sulphur hosts Hot Springs this week, and that game should help give Haflich a better idea of what the Devils will be looking at when they get their shot at the Hornets.

What’s more, Noxon will then host Hot Springs Sept. 14 in another very important game. The crucial games for playoff positioning seem to be coming early in the season this fall.

“It’s an interesting situation, the first half of the season is going to end up deciding some of the playoff questions,” Haflich said. “The power seems be in the Western C this year and there are a lot of teams on this side that are right there with each other.”

Haflich said his big three – Edison VanVleet, Rylan Weltz and Levi Brubaker – keyed the surprisingly easy win over Lincoln last week. “Those three set the tone for us,” he said, “and the rest of the kids followed their lead.”

The Devils streaked out to a 30-0 lead after one quarter, extended the advantage to 43-0 by halftime and to 56-0 by the end of the third quarter.

Brubaker scored three touchdowns – on runs of 35 and 62 yards, and on a 52 yard pass from Jericho Smith – Weltz also scored three TDs – on passes of 10, 19 and 22 yards from Smith – and VanVleet crossed the goal line twice – once on a 17 yard run and again on a 10 yard pass from Smith.

VanVleet’s freshman brother Kade VanVleet also scored two touchdowns (on runs of 35 and 3 yards) and Smith, a sophomore, ended up with five touchdown passes to his credit.

Haflich said the Devil defense was every bit as good as Noxon’s offense.

“Eddie and Rylan keyed our effort but Brody Hill also played really well,” he said. “Lincoln ended the game with no first downs.”

Edison VanVleet pulled down a team-high 10 tackles to lead Noxon on that side of the ball.