Van Buren County runs through Hawks

KEOSAUQUA — In 2020, the Van Buren County football team opened up the season with a dominant win over Central Lee. On Friday night, the Warriors did it again.

Van Buren plastered Central Lee 46-6 to earn a non-district win and move to 1-0 for the second year in a row.

“We have a new quarterback this year and our offensive and defensive lines dominated the line of scrimmage,” said Van Buren County head coach Brian Johnson. “Central Lee thought their ‘girth’ was going to be too much for us but our power run game was able to plow them out of the holes.”

That new quarterback is junior Jackson Manning, who had a nice night in his first varsity game. Manning, a junior, skipped his sophomore season after breaking his hand in a scrimmage before his freshman season.

Manning went 9-for-19 for 142 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for 47 yards and a score.

Fellow junior Sam Warth had a big night running the ball, rumbling for 122 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries. Anthony Dunkin, another junior, led the receiving corps with two catches for 72 yards and a score.

Van Buren’s defense had four different players with 7.5 tackles in Cogyn Jury, Nathan Davidson, Brant Tedrow and Cayden Summers. Tedrow had 3.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. Dirk Boyles had an interception he returned 31 yards, and Keanu Miller recovered a fumble.

"We found a rhythm in the second half and just kept feeding it,“ Johnson said.

The Warriors play Friday at Davis County, which had a 30-14 loss to PCM.