A hot night

It is a rivalry billed as an anything-can-happen game.

For Bandys High, plenty of good things did happen against its county and conference adversary. For Maiden… not so much.

Trojans quarterback Kyle Houser connected on 14 of 22 attempts for 222 yards with one interception and two touchdowns, and tailback Trenton Millsaps ran for 134 yards on 30 carries with three TDs to lead Bandys to a 41-6 rout over the Blue Devils Friday night at Bandys.

The Trojans added 210 yards on the ground to go with Houser's passing output while their defense continued its stellar play in Catawba Valley Athletic 2A Conference action, limiting Maiden to 182 total yards, including only 5 through the air.

For the fourth time in as many league contests, Bandys held its opponent to under 10 points, and the Trojans are allowing a scant 7.8 points against CVAC foes.

"That's been the big difference for us this season," said Trojans head coach Randy Lowman, whose team entered Friday's game ranked 10th in the latest Associated Press 2A poll. "We don't go out feeling like we have to outscore people to win.

"The guys out there are flying around making plays and keeping (opponents) out of the end zone. That's large for us."

Lowman may not feel like his team has to outscore its opposition, but against the Blue Devils, Bandys put up plenty to bump its overall mark to 7-1 and remain unblemished in conference play at 4-0.

Houser threw for 215 of his yards in the first half, and the Trojans found the end zone on their first four possessions to jump out to a commanding 27-6 lead at the intermission.

Ricky Reakes' interception of Maiden quarterback Matt Johnson's pass on the Blue Devils' first play after the break set up a Houser 13-yard scoring run four plays later to extend Bandys' advantage to 34-6.

From there, the Trojans turned to their ground attack with Millsaps gaining 92 of his yards post-halftime and adding his final score in the third quarter's final minute to stretch Bandys' lead to 41-6.

As much as the Trojans offense continued to hum along (Bandys reached the 40-point mark for the fourth time this season), Maiden never shifted out of first gear. The Blue Devils (4-4, 2-2) managed only 74 yards in the opening half, and their only score came on its first series of the second quarter after a Bandys interference penalty and unsportsmanlike conduct call gave Maiden a first down at the Bandys 12.

Two plays later, Johnson scored from 1 yard out, but the Blue Devils failed to climb any further out of a 21-0 hole they were put in after the first quarter.

"We needed to get off to a good start, but we didn't," said Maiden head coach Brian Brown. "We blew some coverages early, and some things happened early that we couldn't let happen.

"That put us behind the eight ball. Everybody just kind of sunk (after Bandys' first-quarter lead), and that made things tough."

Making things tougher for the Blue Devils was the absence of its starting backfield after the half, with third-quarter injuries sidelining Matt Johnson and tailback Nate Johnson.

The Trojans wasted little time in seizing control at the outset. Faced with a third-and-8 call at its 46 on its first possession, Bandys moved to the Blue Devils' 9 when Houser found Dylan King over the middle on a 45-yard connection.

Houser then hit Kenny Hodge on a 7-yard scoring strike one minute, 30 seconds into the game, and Robert Gjurai added the extra point, giving the Trojans a 7-0 lead.

Maiden answered with a drive to the Bandys' 35, but a fourth-and-7 pass fell incomplete, and the Trojans finished an eight-play, 65-yard drive when Houser found Seth Cranfill on an 18-yard TD pass.

Bandys forced a three-and-out on the Blue Devils' ensuing possession, and a 36-yard hook-up between Houser and Tyler Hynes to the Maiden 1 set up a Millsaps scoring plunge, boosting the Trojans' lead to 21-0 with less than two seconds remaining in the opening stanza.