Oh, so close. Ethan Boyd opened the game with a chance at an 80-yard touchdown pass, but it fell incomplete. (Photos by Eric Rinehart)

By Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Wellington fell to Andale again 60-21 at John Gifford Field, capping what has been a very chaotic week for the Crusader football program.

Just 24 hours after it was announced that Wellington head football coach Jeremiah Meeks would not coach this game due to a personnel issue, the Crusaders stepped on the field and played an undefeated, No. 1 3A-ranked, 29-game-winning-streak Indians.

The final results seemed in line with most of the other games the Crusaders have played against the Indians in the past two decades.

Interim head coach Ryan Jenkins stated after the game:

“Distractions are really, really tough for any team. I think the boys came out and did a good job of blocking out the noise and focusing on the task at hand.

I saw a lot of positives tonight. We were a couple of catches away from scoring 35 points. And defensively, although the scoreboard won’t say it, they were right in the spot to make the tackle. Unfortunately, we missed a few. You can’t do that against Andale.”

Wellington almost got off to a huge start. Junior Ethan Boyd looked to be headed for paydirt on an 80-yard journey, only to mishandle the ball for an incomplete pass.

“I guarantee you in the next few weeks, Boyd is going to catch a ball on the opening play,” Jenkins said. “We trust him with the ball.”

Colton Elmore threw for approximately 197 yards against the stout Andale defense.

It was that kind of evening. Wellington had a couple of other missed passes that could have added points on the scoreboard. The Crusaders were also heavily penalized, receiving 15 penalties throughout the game.

As for Andale, it was, as always, a running machine. The Indians would churn out 419 yards, with 407.5 of them rushing-wise. Senior back Jayven Dansel ran for 192 yards and three touchdowns.

Wellington could not stop Andale’s attack – as is the annual case. The Indian line always provided holes for their backs.

Andale initially scored on a 7-play drive that was capped by a Dansel 40-yard run. The Indians added another 9-yard Dansel TD to make it 16-0 at the end of the first quarter.

The Crusaders tried a little bit of everything to score in the first half, including a 42-yard field goal attempt that just missed. At the end of the half, Andale was leading 28-0.

A helicopter flew into Sellers Park to give the game ball to the Crusaders.

In the third quarter, Wellington got on the board when quarterback Colton Elmore hit a 40-yard pass to a wide-open Jackson Curry that made it 28-7. But Noah Stanley came back and scored a 21-yard touchdown for Andale.

The Crusaders would score twice more. Fisher Elder scored from the 2, and Elmore scrambled in at the 4 as time ran out.

Wellington will now battle El Dorado. The Wildcats just broke their 28-game losing streak with a 14-13 victory over Clearwater.

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Here are the stats of the game, a program designed by Kansas Media Rankings. Since this was its inaugural debut on Newscow, these stats are a work in progress, but we are confident they are very close. https://stats.kansasmediarankings.com/g/gmu7kfct6/

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