MORAN — It was more than a little fitting that on a night in which he’d taken a few too many extra shots, it was Marmaton Valley High’s Tyler Lord who ended Thursday’s Class Eight Man-II playoff opener with a big hit of his own.
The senior quarterback found an open lane to the end zone, with a single Hartford defender still in position to make a tackle.
Rather than try a juke or a spin, Lord simply lowered his shoulder, blasting through the Jaguar linebacker as he crossed the goal line.
The third-quarter score put the finishing touch on Marmaton Valley’s 48-0 win, ending the game via Kansas’s eight-man mercy rule.
Unofficially, Lord rushed for 201 yards and four touchdowns, as the Wildcats (8-1) advanced to the regional round, and will host either Thunder Ridge of Kensington or Frankfort next Friday.
“A lot of people said before the season that he may not be tough enough to play quarterback,” Coach Max Mickunas said. “I don’t think there’s any question about that now. Tyler Lord’s a player.”
The game was never in doubt. 
Todd Stevenson returned the opening kickoff 64 yards for a touchdown. A successful onside kick followed, leading to a 6-yard Cooper Scharff touchdown run, and Marmaton Valley led 14-0 barely 2 minutes into the game.
Scharff, who capped the Wildcats’ next drive with a 24-yard touchdown run, suffered an apparent leg injury as he crossed the goal line, and didn’t return.
Marmaton Valley also was without the services of sophomore lineman Ethan Lawson, who broke a finger in practice, and is done for the season.
“We’re hopeful Cooper can come back,” Mickunas said. “With Ethan, it was a super-freak accident that’s super unfortunate, but that’s football. Other teams have injuries, too, and we’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves.
“Our younger guys did a great job of stepping in there, and we still pitched a shutout,” Mickunas said. “We still won in convincing fashion. There’s just a few little things we’ve got to do better.”
Mickunas noted that Hartford (1-8) was able to do some things “to give us fits,” and forced several third downs on a Wildcat team to rely on extended drives instead of its typical quick-score method of domination.
The Wildcats narrowly missed ending the game earlier than it did.
With the ball at midfield on the last play of the half, Marmaton Valley ran a perfectly executed hook-and-ladder, where Lord connected receiver Brevyn Campbell, who immediately lateraled the ball to a streaking Stevenson down the sideline.
But the Jaguars were able to pull him down for a touchdown-saving stop.
