(Anita) CAM jumped out to a 40-0 lead-in in the first quarter and rolled to a 67-18 win over Griswold in an 8-player first-round play-off game at Anita on Friday night.
Lane Spieker scored five touchdowns and threw for two more scores to lead the Cougars. The junior threw touchdown passes to Joe Kauffman for 48-yards and Connor McKee for 37-yards. The Cougars compiled 365 yards of total offense. Griswold ended the night with 204 yards of offense.
“We knew we had to come out and be efficient from the start and I thought our kids were ready to play from the get-go,” said Bower. “The playoffs are an entirely different atmosphere and you have to have a different type of mindset, and we definitely came out with that tonight.”
CAM started the game with a spread offense and Spieker helped set the tone early with a 48-yard touchdown pass to Joe Kauffman. Spieker added to the score with a seven-yard jaunt, Jaxon Bell snagged a Tiger pass for a pick-six, and Spieker pushed the score to 40-0 with three straight rushing touchdowns. The Cougars found pay dirt three more times in the second quarter. Ethan Arp hit Kauffman on a seven-yard pass, Spieker scored on a seven-yard carry, and Ethan Erp connected with Connor McKee on a 37-yard TD strike to push the score to 59-0 at the break.
“We came out in a different offensive set tonight,” said Bower. “We’ve always had that in the bag, and it’s just a matter can we execute, and we did tonight a little bit. This shows we’re multi-dimensional and not just one dimensional.”
The Cougars started the second half much like the first. Ethan Erp fired a 37-yard touchdown pass to Colby Rich, and Cade Ticknor polished off the scoring with a two-point conversion.
Griswold scored three straight to finish off the scoring. Cael Swain and Lane Mueller scored back-to-back rushing touchdowns of 13-yards each, and Brownlee tossed a scoring strike to Mueller to account for the Tigers 18-points.
CAM moves to 7-0 and faces Stanton-Essex next week. Griswold bows out at 0-6.
