When James Thurman took over as interim head coach at Glenbrook on Wednesday, he installed a new offensive system.
Judging by Friday night’s performance, it didn’t take long for the Apaches to get a handle on it. Glenbrook routed the Northwood-Lena Gators 44-6 in a non-district game at home.
Glenbrook improved to 3-5. Northwood-Lena dropped to 2-5.
The Apaches dominated from the start. Ryan Reagan scored the first of his three first-half touchdowns on Glenbrook’s first possession.
After his 56-yard touchdown run and Sam Scroggs’ fourth extra-point kick put the Apaches up 28-0 with 7:37 left in the second quarter, a running clock was used the rest of the game.
Northwood-Lena didn’t get their first first down until midway through the second quarter.
It was a challenging week for Thurman, the school’s athletic director, and his players. Because it’s a personnel issue, Glenbrook officials declined to give a specific reason Thurman replaced Greg Tibbitt, who returned to the school for a second stint as head coach last year.
According to a statement Thurman released Friday morning, Tibbitt is no longer the head varsity coach but he is still an employee at the school.
Thurman said he was proud of the way the players handled a sensitive and difficult situation.
“Definitely a weird week,” Thurman said. “it’s just one of those things that definitely nothing the kids could have avoided, just something that’s a situation they were put in midweek.
“But they rose to the challenge and didn’t let it get them down too bad. You know, they were obviously 100 percent very upset with the situation just because, I mean, they all love Coach Tibbitt. We all do. Such a good guy and does all the things for a program that you ask.
“So the kids definitely miss him and all that, but at the end of the day they did what they were asked to do, come out and play for each other and execute. They did a really good job of that, especially considering, you know, the offense got put in on Wednesday.
“We had Wednesday and Thursday to work on it, came out here today and executed pretty good. Wasn’t a whole lot of mistakes at all, really, which is kind of crazy, but that’s just a tribute to the kids, them coming out and working hard and focusing.
“Definitely proud of them because it could have been easy to come out here and have a mental block from everything that went on and not play well, but they didn’t do that.”
Freshman Louie Collins, who is one of the team’s top defensive players, got his first start of the season at quarterback and performed well.
He threw touchdown passes of 20 yards to Carson Powell in the second quarter and 22 to Darron Hollingsworth in the third.
Hollingsworth also had catches of 61 and 17 yards on a drive that ended with Reagan’s second touchdown, a 9-yard run.
Thurman was pleased with the way Collins, who played some quarterback down the stretch last year, responded.
“He hadn’t played much at all in the games and hadn’t had a lot of reps in practice, so yeah, for him to come out and pick right up. He threw the ball well, threw one interception. It’s kind of a learning moment, you kind of hesitate, wait, wait, wait, and, you know, something that was open, it’s not going to be open long.
“So that’s kind of one of those things, as a quarterback, you’ve got to kind of have an internal clock and know when to get rid of that football and a learning moment. I was able to talk to him and tell him what he did wrong and he understood.”
Glenbrook dominated in all three phases. The Apaches controlled the line of scrimmage with outstanding performances by their linemen.
Glenbrook set up one touchdown with a blocked punt. Colt Jellum made a tackle in the end zone for a safety.
Brayson Festervan scored on a long run on the final play of the game. Scroggs was a perfect 6-for-6 on extra-point kicks.
Glenbrook resumes District 1-1A play Thursday against Lincoln Prep in Grambling. The Panthers (3-5, 1-1) lost to Haynesville 53-0 Friday night.