ARMA — Unfinished business was the theme Thursday for Humboldt High’s Cubs.
Coming off a stinging 34-30 loss to Jayhawk-Linn in week 8, which cost the Cubs any shot at a district championship, Humboldt had to refocus in time for its regular season finale against winless Northeast High.
Mission accomplished.
Humboldt scored twice before taking an offensive snap, courtesy of an 85-yard kickoff return from Conor Haviland and a 55-yard punt return from Jacob Barker, and never looked back in a 58-0 whitewashing.
The win secures a playoff berth for Humboldt (7-2), which now sets its sights on another piece of unfinished business against an old rival.
The Cubs will open the Class 3A playoffs Tuesday at Wellsville, the same squad that dispatched Humboldt in the 2016 postseason, 54-6.
“We’re definitely wanting to get some payback,” said Barker, who topped the 1,000-yard rushing plateau for the second straight season on his first carry of the game. That carry — a 26-yard touchdown run — came on the Cubs’ first snap of the game, and pushed their lead to 19-0 at the 7:45 mark of the first quarter.
“We were hoping for an opportunity to get some of our younger guys to play, since the JV only had four games this year,” Humboldt head coach Logan Wyrick said. “It’s hard to look that far ahead, but at the end of the season you want to see your young guys play a bit to build for next year.”
But first things first. Humboldt must contend with a powerful Eagles squad that rides into the playoffs on an eight-game winning streak and winning by an average of 32 points per game.
“Everybody knows they’re going to come out and run the ball, but they’ve actually been throwing it this year, too, and they have a good defense. They only have one loss for a reason.”
Wyrick is confident Humboldt will enter the postseason with a better frame of mind than last year.
“We were a young team and seemed to be just happy to be in the playoffs,” he said. “We’re not happy just to do that this year.”
Barker agreed.
“We’ve got a lot of seniors on this year, and we don’t want the season to end,” he said.
HUMBOLDT dominated the Vikings in every facet, out-gaining Northeast (unofficially) 334 yards to 18. In fact, it wasn’t until Wyrick sat down most of his starting defensive linemen that the Vikings gained positive yardage on the play — on their 14th snap from scrimmage. By then, Humboldt’s lead stood at 33-0 in the waning seconds of the first quarter. The lead grew to 58-0 by halftime.
A running clock through the third and fourth quarters made the goings slightly more tolerable for the bundled fans, who had to sit through a barrelling north wind with gusts in the 40 mph range.
