Columbus North’s Garrett Long (87), Max Mormino (19) and Luke Spurgeon (27) wrap up Roncalli’s Ben Brandenburg (35) during a game at Max Andress Field at Columbus North High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
It didn’t matter of Luke Hansen was going through, over or around the Columbus North defense Friday night, the Roncalli senior was churning out yards.
Hansen ran for 308 yards and four touchdowns and added a 44-yard touchdown reception to lead the Class 4A No. 2 Royals to a 38-17 win at Columbus North.
“They just got their running game going, and they committed to it,” North coach Logan Haston said. “We knew going into it that was the strength of their team — the run game — and their running back came to play and made some really good plays, and they just kind of busted the game open there in the second half.”
Roncalli marched down the field each of the first two times it had the ball. Both drives culminated in 1-yard touchdown runs by Hansen, and the Royals led 14-0 after one quarter.
Roncalli looked as though it would go up 21-0 when Arik Moyers hit Nolan Tunny over the middle for what looked would be a 35-yard touchdown. But Tunny was hit just before he crossed the goal line, and the ball trickled out of the back of the end zone, giving it back to the Bull Dogs.
North then drove for its first score. Zac Horn found Cooper Horn on third-and-16 from the 17.
After the Bull Dogs stopped the Royals on downs, they drove inside the 10, but had to settle for a 21-yard field goal from Osian Guest to cut the lead to 10-7 with 44 seconds left in the first half.
That was enough time for Roncalli to get in range for a field goal of its own. Levi Wisler, whose last-second field goal beat Bishop Chatard a week earlier, converted from 33 yards to make it 17-10 at halftime.
“I think we’ve done a good job this year of kind of responding to adversity,” Haston said. “It’s not the first time this year we got off to a slow start, but we were able to settle into the game and continue to play good football. We would have liked to get six points there instead of a field goal, but it’s things to build on.”
After holding North on its first series of the second half, the Royals gained a little breathing room. Hansen took a screen pass from Arik Moyers, hurdled a defender and went 44 yards for his third touchown of the night.
The Bull Dogs again drove to the Roncalli 10, but were set back by a couple of penalties, and the drive stalled.
The net time the Royals had it, Hansen went through defenders insted of over them. He broke a couple of tackles on his way to a 43-yard run that made it 31-10.
Hansen then used a downfield cutback to go 55 yards for his fifth touchdown the next time Roncalli had it.
North made the game a little closer early in the fourth quarter when a 30-yard run by Cooper Horn on a fake punt set up a Tyler Blythe 5-yard scamper for a score.
BOXSCORE
Roncalli;14;3;21;0;—;38
Columbus North;0;10;0;7;—;7
R—Luke Hansen 1 run (Levi Wisler kick), 7:48.
R—Hansen 1 run (Wisler kick), 1:06.
CN—Cooper Horn 17 pass from Zac Horn, 5:31.
CN—Osian Guest 21 FG, :45.
R—Wisler 33 FG, :00.
R—Hansen 44 pass from Arik Moyers (Wisler kick), 9:30.
R—Hansen 43 run (Wisler kick), 3:03.
R—Hansen 55 run (Wisler kick), :54.
CN—Tyler Blythe 5 run (Guest kick), 10:06.
Individual statistics
RUSHING — Roncalli: Hansen 25-308, Henry Adams 15-70, Moyers 5-35, Jayden Buchanan 2-12, Ben Brandenburg 2-11, Dylan Koglin 1-7, James Guthrie 1-2. Columbus North: Blythe 19-64, C. Horn 1-30, Z. Horn 2-19, Sam Mormino 1-13, Damon Edwards 1-1.
REVEIVING — Roncalli: Moyers 7-for-15, 114 yards, one touchdown, 0 interceptions. Columbus North: Z. Horn 16-28-200-1-2; Edwards 0-1-0-0-0; C. Horn 0-1-0-0-0.
PASSING — Roncalli: Hansen 3-66, Nolan Tunny 1-34, Charlie Elsener 2-10, Koglin 1-4. Columbus North: C. Horn 8-128, Edwards 2-35, Leon Brown 1-14, Braylon Thoman 1-14, Blythe 3-5, Blake Wilson 1-4.
