Savage Heat pummel Panthers

Talking about getting off to a fast start is one thing, doing it is another.

The Hot Springs Savage Heat got off to an incredibly fast start and quickly sent the Sheridan Panthers home on the short end of 76-6 score in Western C 6-Man football action in Hot Springs Friday.

Now 4-1 in conference action and 5-1 overall, coach Jim Lawson and his hot Heat will host Heart Butte in a non-conference game for homecoming this Friday in Hot Springs.

The Heat were supposed to be hosting Lincoln Friday, but the Lynx forfeited the rest of their season last week. Lawson said Hot Springs was lucky Heart Butte agreed to come to Hot Springs on such short notice. The forfeit from Lincoln counts as a conference win for the Heat, improving Hot Springs to 5-1 in conference and 6-1 overall, regardless of how Friday’s game with the Heart Butte Warriors goes.

Heart Butte is 0-6 after losing 68-18 to Sunburst last week in Northern C 6-Man action.

“We are fortunate that Heart Butte was willing to come here, we really appreciate them doing that,” Lawson said. “You don’t want layoffs, we want to play as much as we can because we feel like we are getting better each time we play. We are trying to stay hungry and keep winning.”

Lawson said the game with Sheridan was never in doubt.

“You like to talk about getting off to a hot start but we really did against Sheridan,” he said. “We had five offensive plays in the first quarter and scored on all five of them, and Sheridan could never recover after that.”

The Heat roared out to a 37-0 lead in the first quarter, setting the game-clock into constant motion in less than 10 minutes of play.

Luke Waterbury scored Hot Springs’ first touchdown on a 38-yard run. Then Tyler Knudsen ran 24 yards to paydirt. Then Waterbury crossed the goal line twice more on runs of five and 14 yards. Before the first quarter ended, Brandon Knudsen pitched a 27-yard scoring pass to Bert DeTienne.

In the second quarter, Waterbury caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Knudsen before Sheridan scored its only touchdown of the day on a nine-yard pass from Moxon Lee to Cade McParland. Tyler Kudsen caught a 58-yard TD pass from his brother Brandon before the half.

Kyle Lawson scored on touchdown runs of 31, 13 and two yards and Nick Costas added a three-yard touchdown run to complete scoring in the second half.

Coach Lawson said it was the kind of game that doesn’t always produce big statistics for the winning team.

“A lot of short fields and one-play drives,” he explained, “and we forced five turnovers, which helped with those short drives.”

Waterbury carried the ball four times for 76 yards and three touchdowns and Brandon Kundsen completed four of four passes for 116 yards and three TDs.

Brandon also had nine tackles, two fumble recoveries and an interception on defense, Waterbury had seven tackles, including three quarterback sacks and Kyle Lawson pulled down two more pass interceptions.