West Liberty strikes on opening kickoff, rolls past Tipton, 30-7

WEST LIBERTY — Start to finish, literally.

Braden Bickford ran the opening kickoff back 90 yards for a touchdown, and West Liberty handled Tipton, 30-7, in a non-district football game Friday night at Memorial Field.

Four different West Liberty players reached the end zone, and the Comets (1-1) held Tipton to 109 yards of total offense, including 14 on the ground (on 24 carries).

It took 14 seconds for Comets to strike. Bickford took the kickoff at the 10, and ran untouched along the right sideline.

West Liberty quarterback Devin Mericle completed 23 of 28 passes for 179 yards, including a 10-yard scoring strike to Kasyn Vandeberg that made it 14-0 late in the first quarter.

Tipton (0-2) got within 14-7 on Garret Fitch’s 14-yard TD pass to Oakley Kruse, but West Liberty’s Uriel Andrade-Martinez drilled a 40-yard field goal as the first half ended.

Briggs Collins’ 3-yard run extended it to 24-7 with 4:34 left in the third quarter, then the Comets tacked on a 2-yard run by Madden Meek with 0:47 remaining in the game.

West Liberty rolled despite 12 penalties for 105 yards.

The Comets are at Central DeWitt next week; Tipton hosts Maquoketa.

West Liberty 30, Tipton 7

At West Liberty

TEAM STATISTICS

First downs: TIP 6, WL 14

Rushes-yards: TIP 24-14, WL 34-89

Passing yards: TIP 95, WL 179

Passing: TIP 9-20-0, WL 23-29-1

Total yards: TIP 109, WL 268

Fumbles-lost: TIP 1-0, WL 0-0

Punts-average: TIP 6-27.7, WL 4-33.8

Penalties-yards: TIP 8-35, WL 12-105

SCORING SUMMARY

Tipton 0 7 0 0 — 7

West Liberty 14 3 7 6 — 30

WL — Braden Bickford 90 kickoff return (Uriel Andrade-Martinez kick)

WL — Kasyn Vandeberg 10 pass from Devin Mericle (Andrade-Martinez kick)

TIP — Oakley Kruse 14 pass from Garret Fitch (Brody Johnson kick)

WL — FG Andrade-Martinez 40

WL — Briggs Collins 3 run (Andrade-Martinez kick)

WL — Madden Meek 2 run (pass failed)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

Tipton — Ethan Holub 12-13, Jacob Langley 2-5, Oakley Kruse 1-2, Garret Fitch 9-(minus 6). West Liberty — Briggs Collins 13-48, Owen Daufeldt 14-44, Madden Meek 3-7, Axel Polanco 1-3, Pierre Shield 1-1, Devin Mericle 2-(minus 14).

Passing

Tipton — Fitch 9-20-0-95. West Liberty — Mericle 23-28-1-179, Team 0-1-0-0.

Receiving

Tipton — Kruse 4-44, Gavin Sorgenfrey 3-29, Braydon Calonder 1-14, Max Lashmit 1-8. West Liberty — Meek 8-84, Kasyn Vandeberg 5-32, Daufeldt 4-34, Tully Griffith 3-23, Braden Bickford 2-9, Collins 1-(minus 3).

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com