Thornton – If its opponents hadn’t learned the lesson already this season, Fort Collins drove home the point with an exclamation mark Thursday night against Thornton: Trying to outscore the Lambkins often becomes an exercise in futility.
After a shaky first half, Fort Collins rolled to a 53-33 victory over Thornton at Five Star Stadium behind its 1-2 punch of quarterback Matt Yemm and running back Brian Bello.
Once they got rolling after halftime, the Lambkins (7-2, 5-1 Front Range League) were unstoppable as they moved half a game ahead of Poudre and Legacy for first place.
“Our offense is good enough to score with any team in the state,” said Bello, a senior who rushed for a season-high 171 yards and three touchdowns.
The much-improved Trojans (4-5, 2-4) battled Fort Collins to a 14-14 halftime tie but were swamped 39-19 in the second half. The Lambkins scored touchdowns on all six second-half possessions, doing so while gaining 263 yards on 15 plays, 13 of them rushes for 223 yards.
The Lambkins took the second-half kickoff and marched 70 yards in seven plays – all of them runs – with Zach Donaldson scoring from 6 yards.
Thornton answered with a tying touchdown drive, but Fort Collins scored on the first play of its next three possessions: a 32-yard run by Bello after a 73-yard kickoff return by Matt McDermott; a 25-yard pass from Yemm to Ryan Larson after a 15-yard Thornton punt; and a 46-yard run by Yemm on a quarterback draw.
“We really picked it up in the second half,” said Yemm, a junior who rushed for 194 yards and two touchdowns and passed for 70 yards. “In the first half, we really didn’t play very well. That first drive was the offensive line and Bello.”
“Those were some of the biggest holes I’ve seen so far,” said Bello, who also had touchdown runs of 6 and 7 yards.
Yemm, who began the season at wide receiver but was switched to quarterback after Garrett Houts injured his throwing wrist Sept. 16 in a 17-16 loss to Cherry Creek, capped Fort Collins’ scoring with a 61-yard run late in the fourth quarter.
Bello said Yemm is “a little quicker and shiftier” than Houts. “He makes teams prepare to watch me, him and our receivers. When Houts got hurt, we didn’t know how Matt was going to do, but he’s shocked us all.”
Thornton, no soft touch under first-year coach Jeff Priestley, made Fort Collins work for the win, though the Lambkins did hold leading rusher Jamie Morgan to 66 yards on 23 carries.
Thornton quarterback Donny Hopkins completed 17-of-27 passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns to Aaron Serna, and Troy Small caught eight passes for 115 yards.
