After a bit of a sluggish start, the Glenbrook Apaches rolled into the second round of the select Division IV playoffs with a 49-12 victory over the Sacred Heart Trojans Friday night at Apache Stadium.
Glenbrook improved to 8-2
Friday’s game was Glenbrook’s first since the Apaches fell to Homer 38-28 in a hard-fought battle on Oct. 27.
Glenbrook lost fumbles on its first two series. But Cade Herron gave the Apaches a spark, scooping up a fumble and sprinting 60 yards for a touchdown.
Easton Sanders passed to Landry Powell for the two-point conversion.
Leading 8-0 at the end of the first quarter, Glenbrook put the game away in the second, outscoring the Trojans 28-6 for a 36-6 halftime lead.
“I thought it was a tremendous team win,” Glenbrook Head Coach Reagan Smith said. “After we overcame the initial adversity we kind of got into our groove and put it together as a team and played some really good football.”
Powell scored three touchdowns and two two-point conversions. He also recovered a fumble inside the Sacred Heart 10 to set up his final TD, a 5-yard run.
His other touchdowns came on runs of 2 and 52 yards in the second quarter.
“He had a tremendous game,” Smith said. “(Chase) Sentell was kind of nursing an ankle (injury) so we used him very sparingly. Landry was able to fill in the gap.”
Sentell did make his presence felt. With 15 seconds left in the first half, he caught a 37-yard pass from Sanders in the back of the end zone. He also set up another score with a long punt return and kept a TD drive alive with a fourth-down catch.
Sanders also had a very good game. After completing passes of 14 yards to Sentell and 12 yards to Powell, he scored on a 1-yard run and then hit Sentell for the two-point conversion, putting the Apaches up 30-6.
Smith also praised tight end Garrett Brown, who had a 54-yard catch on Glenbrook’s first touchdown drive.
“Garrett Brown had a helluva game catching the football,” Smith said. “He had two or three catches and they were big.”
Glenbrook’s final TD came on an 11-yard pass from Sanders to Preston Frye.
The defense gave up an 80-yard catch-and-run touchdown in the second quarter. But other than that, the Apaches dominated, getting sacks and other stops behind the line that put the Trojans in some tough situations.
If there was any negative, it was the early fumbles. That’s something that has bitten the Apaches this season. It didn’t matter Friday, but it could as the competition gets tougher.
“We’ve talked about how important it is in the grand scheme and outcome of games,” Smith said. “I’ll look at it this weekend and see if there’s some other way I can address and remedy that situation.
“Ultimately it did not impact the outcome of the game. We were able to settle in and play our football and do a really good job and win the game.”