The 20th-ranked Kansas State Wildcats wasted no time getting on the scoreboard against the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks on Saturday evening, as the eventually ended up rolling their way to a 55-16 win in their season opener.
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Quarterback Jake Waters completed five of six passes on the Wildcats’ first drive, including a nine yard touchdown pass to the dynamic Tyler Lockett. They never looked back.
Waters finished his night 19-28 for 223 yards with two touchdowns, and an interception on a tipped pass. He also ran for a team high 55 yards and two more touchdowns.
Kansas State also had a methodical second drive. Waters was three of four passing on that drive, and capped it off with a five yard touchdown run to put K-State up 14-0.
The Wildcats held the Lumberjacks to just 17 first quarter yards, and under three minutes of time with the ball. As the old football proverb goes, you can’t score if you don’t have the ball.
The third drive was much of the same for Kansas State. Charles Jones capped the drive off with a 15 yard touchdown run. It was the first drive of under five minutes for the Wildcats.
Stephen F. Austin finally had some success on offense on their fourth drive. Quarterback Joe Minden capped an eight play, 77 yard drive with an 18 yard touchdown run to cut the lead deficit to 21-7.
Jake Waters picked up his second rushing touchdown of the game on a one yard sneak to cap off a seven play drive to push the lead to 28-7.
Lumberjack QB Zach Conque had a 32 yard-scramble to put SFA in field goal range to cut the lead to 28-10 at halftime.
The only drive that Kansas State failed to score on in half number one was when they missed a 46 yard field goal as time expired in the second quarter.
The second half was much of the same for the Wildcats. Waters continued his nice night with his second touchdown pass midway through the third quarter. He hit Kody Cook with a pretty 22 yard pass in the corner of the end zone to extend the lead to 35-10.
Jones picked up his second touchdown run out of the Wildcat after the Kansas State defense forced a fumble and gave the offense a short field.
Stephen F. Austin was able to capitalize on an interception by Collin Garrett. RB Gus Johnson ripped off a 30 yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 42-16. It stayed that way after a missed extra point by Jordan Wiggs.
Backup quarterback Joe Hubener picked up his first career touchdown pass on a 15 yard strike to Steven West to make it 52-16 Wildcats.
They would add another field goal, much to the chagrin of Willie the Wildcat. He was tired from doing all those pushups tonight!
Kansas State will look to go to 2-0 next week with a noon eastern kickoff in Ames against an Iowa State team that got manhandled by North Dakota State earlier today.