Bullpups Dominate 1st Half in Big Win Over Circle

McPHERSON, Kan. – The McPherson football team wasted no time getting started on Friday night and ended the first half with a bang on their way to a 41-8 win over Circle at Brubaker Family Stadium.

Bullpup running back Dane Becker picked up where he left off from last week, starting the game with a 25-yard run. Five plays later, McPherson was into the end zone on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Carter Bengtson to Brody Hoffman for a 7-0 lead. After a quick three-and-out for the Thunderbirds, McPherson scored again on a 6-yard TD run by Becker for a 13-0 lead.

Later in the first quarter, facing a 4th-and-4 at the McPherson 43, the Thunderbirds elected to go for the first down. Becker stepped in front of a Cole Wilber pass over the middle and took it 61 yards for a score to put the Bullpups up 20-0 after one.

McPherson would score again midway through the second quarter on a 28-yard run by Bengtson to go up 27-0. They would then hold Circle and using their timeouts toward the end of the first half, the Bullpups had another big play with a 48-yard touchdown pass from Bengtson to Ashton Malm to put them up 34-0 at halftime.

As forecasted, the rain came at halftime. Circle used nearly half of the third quarter and scored on a 10-yard pass from Wilbur to Rocky Cosby. Colt Chapman blocked the extra point and McPherson led 34-6. McPherson got several players in during the second half with the wide margin. The Bullpups blocked two punts in a row, one by Chapman and another by Bo Barkley, who was named the homecoming king at halftime. The Barkley block set the Bullpups up at the Thunderbird 20 and Graham Prescott had two straight 10-yard runs, scoring a touchdown with 10:32 remaining to take a 41-6 lead.

Circle’s final points came on a safety when Jaxon Hoover’s knee hit the ground in the end zone on a punt snap. McPherson finished with the 33-point win in the end, moving their overall record against Circle to 12-0.

Becker had his second straight 100-yard rushing game. After running for 200 yards against Buhler, he racked up 112 and a touchdown on Friday night. Bengtson finished 9-13 for 129 yards and two touchdowns passing, all in the first half. In total McPherson had 286 yards with 157 on the ground and 129 through the air. Circle racked up 197 yards of total offense, throwing for 104 and rushing for 93.

McPherson improved to 3-1 overall and 3-0 in AVCTL Division III. Circle is now 0-4 and 0-3 in league play.

Score by Quarters