ShawneeDispatch.com

Overland Park — Led by coach Ryan Majors in a white, pressed dress shirt, tie and slacks, the Shawnee Mission North football team looked like a confident bunch as it marched to the field Friday night.

That confidence carried over to the Indians’ play from the opening whistle as they forced a quick fumble, scored early and never looked back in a 34-7 blowout of Shawnee Mission South at South District Stadium.

A hard hit forced South’s Antonio McFadden to fumble the opening kickoff return. North’s Luke Lohmeyer pounced on the ball ad the South 22-yard line.

“That revved us up for the rest of the game; that got us hyped,” North defensive lineman Jermaine Rollins said.

Less than two minutes later Brad Remy drilled a 36-yard field goal and gave the Indians a 3-0 lead.

The Indians would have preferred to score a touchdown on their opening possession, but they reached the endzone soon enough. The defense forced a South to punt on its second possession. Six plays and 31 yards later, quarterback Arthur Rucker scored on a 1-yard sneak up the middle. Remy’s extra point was good and North led 10-0 with 4:55 left in the opening quarter.

South was forced into a three-and-out on its third possession as well and finished the first quarter with just 16 yards of total offense.

“Our defense put us in great situations. That set the table tonight,” North coach Ryan Majors said. “Each game it’s been offense or defense or a mix of both. We’re all playing off each other right now really well, and the best part about it was the defensive side of the ball our coaches had them very well prepared, in the right spots and our kids were being aggressive and making sure every time a ball was in the air somebody was getting hit.”

South’s fourth possession culminated with a missed 46-yard field goal attempt, and its fifth was halted when Rollins sacked Raiders quarterback Dustin King for an 11-yard loss.

Remy extended North’s lead to 13-0 with 3:09 left in the first half when he made a 32-yard field goal.

Moments later the defense delivered again when Ryan Finazzo sacked King and forced a fumble. Rollins pounced on the ball at the South 18-yard line. A 13-yard run by Rucker set up first and goal at the 5-yard line. Two plays later O.J. Shields plunged across the goal line. Remy made the extra point and the lead grew to 20-0 with 1:39 left in the half. That score held through halftime.

The Indians were pleased with their performance in the first half, but they weren’t satisfied.

“We were really focused,” Finazzo said. “We’ve been working on that all week because last week we started letting up in the second half. We worked really hard and just kept that focus and didn’t let up.”

North weathered a fierce defensive effort by South during the third quarter, and the Indians used their own staunch defense as a counterpunch. An interception by Lohmeyer midway through the quarter halted a South drive. A fourth-down sack by Richard Pearson stopped another.

North’s offense rediscovered its stride early in the fourth quarter when Rucker connected with Finazzo for a 26-yard touchdown strike on fourth down. That gave the Indians a 27-0 lead.

Less than a minute later they struck again as Finazzo made a return trip to the endzone. This time he picked off a pass and returned it 30 yards. After Remy’s extra point, North led 34-0 with 8:38 left.

South avoided the shutout when King found Antonio McFadden in the corner of the endzone with 3:18 left in the game. With victory in hand, North put in its backups to close out the game.

Despite the lopsided score, South outgained North in total offense 185-156. Of South’s total, 100 of those yards came in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach. North’s defense forced four turnovers, however, and the Indians turned them into 17 points.

North improved to 3-3 overall and 2-1 in the Sunflower League with the victory. The three victories matches the total number of wins North has had during the past two seasons combined.

Now Majors hopes his team will collect victory No. 4 at 7 p.m. next Friday when it takes on Shawnee Mission East at North District Stadium in the first game of Class 6A district play. That’d be a big step for a program on the rise.

“It’d mean a lot,” Majors admitted. “We’re on a roll. (East) is a team that we were able to hang with last year and close out (North won 41-38), but they’ve had some tough wins this year too.”

More is at stake than just that. The Nut Cup also will be up for grabs.

“There’s a big rivalry there. There’s a huge rivalry there,” Majors said. “This is something that you kind of throw out all the records. That’s what happened last year, and it’s kind of like a backyard brawl.”