Senior quarterback Caige McComb accounted for 296 yards of total offense and four scores to lead Kelly Walsh past the Laramie Plainsmen 37-21 Friday night in Laramie.

McComb ran for 162 yards and two touchdowns, while he also threw for 134 yards and two scores. Brock Spiegelberg added 162 rushing yards and a touchdown.

The Trojans rolled up 466 yards of total offense, including 332 on the ground and held the Plainsmen to 165 yards of offense. Kelly Walsh also dominated time-of-possession with over 35 minutes compared to Laramie, who was under 13 minutes.

Plainsmen first year head coach Clint Reed said he loved the big plays, but pointed to other parts of the game that he felt cost them.

“You love to have those plays, but as much as we were able to do it, and as dynamic as (Jason) Upton was in many phases of the game for us tonight (Friday), we couldn’t sustain drives and keep the defense off the field. It’s easy to say a lot of yards by K-W on the field, but when we can’t maintain the clock, and we can’t pound it on the ground ourselves, we’re hurting our defense. Our offense didn’t do our defense any favors tonight (Friday).”

Laramie (0-1) also committed three turnovers, two fumbles and an interception, and had two bad snaps on punts that led to safeties.

The Trojans scored off both Plainsmen fumbles. McComb hit Taylor Maese on a 9-yard TD pass for a 7-0 lead. Laramie answered right back when Upton raced 74 yards for a touchdown on the next offensive play.

Kelly Walsh took advantage of a short field, which led to McComb hitting Joey Geil on a 33-yard TD pass. After the Trojans forced a punt, McComb capped a six-play drive with a 1-yard QB sneak for a 19-7 lead.

Upton returned the second half kick-off 99 yards for a TD. Laramie recovered a loose free kick, but failed to capitalize.

The Plainsmen fumbled on their next offensive possession deep in their own territory. Two plays McComb ran it in from 17 yards out for a 26-14 lead. The first safety came on Laramie’s next drive.

Still, the Plainsmen kept battling, and Nate Burman’s 14-yard TD pass to Garrett Worden cut it to 28-21 late in the third quarter.

After the teams exchanged punts, the second safety made it 30-21. KW added a late score for the final margin.

Reed knew the turnovers and bad snaps were critical.

“We brought in our second team snapper (due to injury), and we did struggle a little bit there. No excuses, the next man steps up. Minus three in the turnover ratio, you can’t win games with that. We’ve got to win that margin, so we’ve got to figure some things out with that, clean it up and have some more focus.”

Upton accounted for 180 all-purpose yards. Burman went 9-19 for 142 yards with a TD and an interception.

Reed understands their next challenge will be big against a run-heavy Rock Springs Tigers team.

“It goes right back to what we’ve said. If we can sure up some things on offense; we can run the ball; we sustain the clock a little bit; we will keep our defense off the field and that’ll help tremendously. Again, we’ve got to all help each other in all phases of the game.”

The Plainsmen head to Rock Springs on Sept. 1 for a 7 p.m. kick-off against the Tigers.

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